Jonny pivotal to Roses’ glory days
Consummate professional Wilkinson to bow out at top
FEW players came to define the difference between rugby union’s amateur and professional eras quite so clearly as Jonny Wilkinson, who announced yesterday he would be retiring at the end of this season.
Had he been a concert violinist, few would have thought it odd he spent several hours every day honing his craft, often in the company of a specialist coach.
Yet just weeks before all that devotion paid off with a ‘ wrong-footed’ drop-goal that won England the 2003 World Cup final, one former international asked Wilkinson if he felt he was in danger of ‘cracking up’ mentally under the strain of his training regime.
If Wilkinson raised the bar for goalkicking, he also redefined the nature of flyhalf play. Traditionally, those wearing the number 10 shirt were the lone players on the field excused from the gruelling business of tackling in what has always been a physical sport.
But Wilkinson didn’t just chip in to defensive work. He positively relished it, with one bone-crushing tackle on France wing Emile Ntamack during the 2000 Six Nations still vivid more than a decade later.
But the price of Wilkinson’s commitment was a succession of injuries which kept him out of Test rugby for nearly four years.
Had he stayed fit, he would surely still hold the world record for most points scored in Tests – as it his tally of 1 246 points in 91 matches for England (with six more for the British and Irish Lions) is second only to that of New Zealand’s Dan Carter.
Wilkinson was never a running ‘flyhalf’ in the manner of Australia’s Mark Ella or Wales greats Barry John and Phil Bennett, although his kicking exploits did tend to overshadow his moments of on-field creativity.
But he was, rather, an ideal fit in a particular England team.
Playing behind a powerful pack well-marshalled by World Cup-winning skipper Martin Johnson, and with the likes of Will Greenwood alongside him, Wilkinson’s all-round kicking game, and his distribution, allowed England to capitalise on their possession.
Having started as a centre during Newcastle’s 1997-98 English title winning season, he was switched to flyhalf and capped by England as an 18year-old against Ireland.
Wilkinson survived England’s controversial ‘Tour of Hell’, a series of wretchedly lopsided defeats by the Tri-Nations and by the time he headed to Australia for the 2003 World Cup was probably the world’s best flyhalf.
England just did enough and Wilkinson needed some playmaking assistance from Mike Catt in a tricky quarterfinal against Wales.
His injuries gave England flyhalf chances to Charlie Hodgson, Danny Cipriani and Toby Flood but none could make the position their own.
And although Wilkinson was back directing operations at the 2007 World Cup in France, where they lost in the final to South Africa, things were never quite the same again.
In 2009 he left Newcastle for Top 14 big-spenders Toulon and, typically, applied himself to the business of learning French with all the thoroughness that went into his goalkicking.
And such was England’s enduring uncertainty at outside-half, he was again directing operations at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
And for all Wilkinson said his almost ‘monk-like’ off-field approach was not for everyone. It was surely better than the alcohol-fuelled ‘old school’ incidents that overshadowed a wretched tournament for an England side coached by Martin Johnson, Wilkinson’s World Cup-winning captain.
Wilkinson bowed out of Test rugby shortly afterwards but has enjoyed a new lease of life at Toulon playing alongside the likes of South Africa’s Bryan Habana and Australia’s Matt Giteau.
Last season he scored 11 points in Toulon’s 16-15 European Cup final win over Clermont.
And this term the 34-year-old Wilkinson has helped leave Toulon on the brink of a domestic and European ‘double’ in what are set to be his final two games before retirement.
Toulon play Saracens in the European Cup final on Saturday and Castres in the Top 14 climax the following week – a great finish for a great player. — AFP