Jonny exits with a lesson for our World Cup hopefuls
Wilkinson shows the way to win the matches that really matter
AS WE said goodbye to Jonny Wilkinson, not only did he produce yet another outstanding individual performance which earned that massive roar when he went off but his Toulon side showed us how you win huge Cup matches.
There were plenty of lessons there for England’s World Cup hopefuls. Perform like that and England won’t be far away.
Great teams are made of great individuals playing without ego, like Jonny has throughout his career. Toulon are packed with internationals, but that counts for little unless they bring those skills to the party and play like a top side.
Toulon, who remind me of a top-class southern hemisphere side in their physicality and skill levels, bring all that into play when it is most need. It was textbook winning rugby.
Toulon absorbed the early Saracens pressure and had the confidence and sheer ability to hit back, even when they were down to 14 men. They have become a great rugby side who operate at their best in extremis.
Their second try yesterday was a beauty, but bear in mind the circumstances under which it was scored. Saracens had made a useful start after half-time and had just pegged back a penalty. That’s when great sides go into another gear and their skills levels and ambition as Jonny launched that attack down the fivemetre tackle with one of those long passes was exceptional
Toulon are clever. That first-half try from Matt Giteau was a sublime moment. It was straight off the training field in my opinion, a precalled switch by Jonny, a great pass off his left hand and a kick which Giteau immediately chased. Something was on right from the start.
Toulon like to use that twin fly-half ploy and the higher you go up the ladder in elite rugby the more the need for that option in your play.
Defences are so organised and strong these days you have to do something extra to keep them guessing and give yourself options. A ballplaying 12 is a huge plus and again it might be something England might look to in the future. In modern-day rugby attacking teams now win the big games.
It was also noticeable that Toulon hardly used Jonny kicking defensively, at least in the first half. Again so clever. I fancy the Sarries’ back row will have been targeting Jonny but Tilous-Borde took on a lot of the responsibility and then, of course, when you have Matt Giteau outside, you can also move it on there as well. Text book stuff
When Jonny walked off just before the end, the ovation he got was pretty special. Everybody in the stadium wanted to acknowledge him and the fact is Jonny has done more than anybody to make this gathering of galacticos into a team that has just retained the Heineken Cup.
When he hangs up his boots next Sunday morning after his final ever game, I hope he allows himself another huge smile — wasn’t he beaming yesterday? — and a few moments of proud reflection. His career has been an incredible body of work: 97 Test appearances; second highest scorer in Test Rugby with 1,246 points; A World Cup winner; twice a World Cup finalist; a double European Cup winner; a Premiership winner with Newcastle and possibly a T14 winner in his final game. No wonder Toulon want to retire his No 10 shirt.
The first time I saw and spoke to Jonny Wilkinson was at an England Schools training session at Bisham Abbey in 1997 just down the road from where I live.
I had just been appointed England coach and Dave Alred, who had already started working with Jonny on his kicking, phoned me to say he had seen a young fly-half who was the real deal in every respect.
He said I should try and pop in and have a look, which is exactly what I did, spending an hour on the touchline watching the England lads train. He might still have looked like a lower sixth former and he was shy to the point of embarrassment when I spoke to him but he also looked like a fully formed international rugby player. It was remarkable.
The following year, when I first capped him off the bench in the Five Nations, Jonny was the second youngest player in England history at 18 years and 314 days but it was not a crazy experiment of mine or personal whim. Jonny wasn’t a development project, one for the future. He was the present.
THERE was nothing he wasn’t good at, actually that’s not quite right, his communication skills at team meetings needed improving. Jonny was incredibly shy but no wonder, he was an 18 year old and there I was asking him to stand up in front of Martin Johnson, Jason Leonard, Jeremy Guscott and Lawrence Dallaglio and the senior hands and tell us how we were going to play. It’s very intimidating but, like everything Jonny works at, he quickly became really good at it.
Toulon have given Jonny a new lease of life. To go down to Toulon, learn French seemingly overnight and captain a team of superstars including the likes of Bakkies Botha, Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Matt Giteau and Bryan Habana has been a massive personal success for him.
Jonny is in a great place, very happily married, and the next part of his career and life, whatever that entails, will be equally successful — you can be sure of that.
A thoroughly pleasant and admirable human being who has patiently overcome horrible injuries, a role model everybody can look up to. A modest English patriot who is admired and respected by all nations. That shy schoolboy on the touchline has conquered the rugby world. Take a bow.