Jonny Wilkinson

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Jonny Wilkinson
Jonny Wilkinson 2009 08 england training 3.jpg
Player information
Full name Jonathan Peter Wilkinson
birthday May 25, 1979
place of birth Frimley , Surrey , England
Nickname Wilko
society
society RC Toulon
position Connector , inner three quarters
Clubs as active
Years society Games (points)
1997-2009 Newcastle Falcons 182 (2049)
2009-2014 RC Toulon 141 (1884)
National team
Years National team Games (points)
1998-2011 England 91 (1179)
2001, 2005 British and Irish Lions 6 (67)

Status: August 28, 2015
National team: October 11, 2011

Jonathan Peter Wilkinson CBE (born May 25, 1979 in Frimley , Surrey ) is a retired English rugby union player who was placed in the position of the connector . He was active for the English national team and the two clubs Newcastle Falcons and RC Toulon . He is one of the most famous players in his sport around the world and has broken numerous records in his career.

Wilkinson grew up in Surrey and started rugby when he was four. During his school days he also played cricket and tennis , but soon devoted himself exclusively to rugby. He made a name for himself early on in England when he became the pre-eminent player in the country's youth teams.

Career

1997-1999

In 1997 he began his professional career with the Newcastle Falcons as an inner three-quarters. In his first season he was called up to the national team, on April 4, 1998 his first appearance for England in a duel with Ireland followed . Wilkinson's first game in the starting line-up went down in the history of English rugby. In June 1998 the team lost to Australia 0:76, ​​the biggest defeat for England to date.

In the following season he moved to the position of connector, both in the club and in the national team. He was also responsible for the penalty, raise and jump kicks. 1999 saw the first game at a World Cup when the English beat Italy 67: 7. Wilkinson scored one attempt and a total of 32 points. In the play-off game against Fiji, coach Sir Clive Woodward spared him and was later sharply criticized for it. Against South Africa, the English were eliminated in the quarter-finals.

2000-2002

In 2000 and 2001, Wilkinson won the Six Nations title with England . In the game against Italy at the Six Nations 2001 he scored 35 points in an 80:23 win. He set the record for the most points in a Six Nations game. In the same year he secured the first national title of his career with his club team. The Newcastle Falcons won the Powergen Cup this season with a 30:27 final win over the Harlequins . Because of his outstanding performance, he was invited to the British and Irish Lions tour and was a regular during his stay in Australia . In the second game of the series he was injured, but was able to play the next game again and scored 18 points, the most that a Lions player has ever achieved in a game.

In November 2002 England played friendly matches against the three largest rugby nations in the southern hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the first game against the All Blacks, Wilkinson scored a "full house". He managed one attempt, two raises, three penalties, and a jump kick. With this performance he led his team to a 31:28 victory. After a 19:31 deficit, the English managed to win against Australia in the end with 32:31. Against South Africa they not only achieved their third success in a row against a team from the southern hemisphere, the 53-3 was also the highest defeat for the Springboks of all time.

2003

This series of successes continued in 2003 with the Six Nations. England won all games and took the Grand Slam . This also made them the favorites for the world championship title at the World Cup in Australia in the same year. More big wins followed that year. Against New Zealand the English were able to win a game twice in a row for the first time, Wilkinson scored all points. Against Australia, the first away win in the history of English rugby was achieved and the belief in a possible victory at the World Cup grew. In the preliminary round Wilkinson came to three missions, in the final group game against Uruguay he was spared. England was able to win all games and so moved into the quarter-finals as group winners. There you met Wales . 23 points from Wilkinson led to a 28:17 victory and a place in the semi-finals. Against France he scored all points at 24: 7. In the final they met host Australia. The regular playing time ended at 17:17. 21 seconds before the end of extra time, Wilkinson scored the legendary drop goal with which England could become world champions for the first time. This decisive step made him famous around the world and caused a lot of resentment, especially among the underdogs. The Australian public criticized the strength and kick-oriented game of the English, which left little room for attempts.

Wilkinson received the 2003 Player of the Year award and the MBE award . He was also named BBC Sports Personality of the Year , UK Sportsman of the Year. A year later he was even appointed OBE .

2004-2007

Wilkinson preparing for a penalty kick against Italy
Wax figure in Trafalgar Square ahead of the 2007 World Cup final

In the following months he was repeatedly hit by injuries and in a year and a half came to less than 1000 minutes of playing time. Despite various setbacks, he was called up for the tour of the British and Irish Lions in 2005, where he came to two missions, but injured himself again.

In 2007 Wilkinson was again the central player of the England national team and his club, the Newcastle Falcons. His injury misery seemed to be over and he had been able to train continuously for a long time and take part in league and international games. He was part of the team for the 2007 World Cup, where England wanted to repeat their title win. The omens were not as good as before the 2003 World Cup. England had previously lost a few test matches against South Africa and Wilkinson was out again. The English team had to play the first two games of the World Cup without their connector and promptly showed poor performance. There was a significant 0:36 defeat against South Africa, but it was difficult to win against the USA . In the group game against Samoa , Wilkinson returned to the squad and scored 24 points at 44:22. He was also involved in the decisive group game against Tonga . In the quarter-finals they met the final opponent of the last World Cup, Australia. At 12:10, Wilkinson scored all of his team's points and became the most successful scorer of all time at World Championships. In the 14: 9 win against France in the semi-finals, he scored another nine points and was again in the final. The English lost against South Africa by 6:15 and were unable to repeat their 2003 triumph.

2008-2014

At the Six Nations 2008 Wilkinson was part of England's main lineup in the first four games. He scored 14 points against Wales, but they weren't enough to win. With his 13 points in victory in Italy, Wilkinson surpassed the 1,000 point mark. Against France he scored the 29th goal in his career with a jump kick and set a new world record. In the fourth game the English lost to Scotland with 9:15, Wilkinson scored all points of his team. He overtook Neil Jenkins and is now the most successful player of all time in rugby history with 1099 points. Because of England's poor performance, he was also criticized. Coach Brian Ashton put him on the bench in the final Six Nations game against Ireland. Danny Cipriani replaced him as number 10. This was only the second time in Wilkinson's international career that he had to play a game from the bench. In the course of the game he was substituted on for Toby Flood as the inner three-quarters and played alongside Cipriani.

On the third day of the Guinness Premiership season , Wilkinson broke the all-time record for the most points (1,486) ever scored in the league with his two raises and a penalty against Bristol Rugby . Shortly afterwards, however, he again injured his knee severely and was out for five months. He was therefore unable to take part in the Six Nations 2009 . Meanwhile, Charlie Hodgson scored more points in the English league and is thus top scorer.

Wilkinson played from the 2009/10 season after twelve years with the Falcons in France at RC Toulon . The French club has signed numerous top-class players such as Felipe Contepomi or Tana Umaga and has a large financial volume. Wilkinson earned around € 700,000 a year there.

In November 2009, Wilkinson returned to the national team after an 18-month break after getting off to a good start to the season with Toulon. England could only win against Argentina in the series against teams from the southern hemisphere. He was in the starting line-up in all games. In 2011 Wilkinson ended his membership in the national team.

Wilkinson ended his career as a rugby player at the end of the 2013/2014 season with the game of Toulon against Castres on May 31, 2014.

Records

  • 1125 points in international test matches
  • 249 points at world championships
  • 113 points at the world championship in 2003
  • only player to have scored points in two finals in a World Cup
  • 31 successful jump kicks
  • 35 points in one game (Six Nations)
  • 18 points in one game (Lions)

Private life

Wilkinson writes a column for the English daily newspaper The Times during major tournaments like the Six Nations . He has also written three books with the help of Neil Squires. He lives in Northumberland with his older brother Mark . Richard Hill and Mike Catt are among his closest friends on the England team . After his active career he is aiming for a coaching career.

See also

literature

  • Jonny Wilkinson: Lions and Falcons: My Diary of a Remarkable Year. Headline Book Publishing, ISBN 0-7472-4243-7
  • Jonny Wilkinson: My World. Headline Book Publishing, ISBN 0-7472-4276-3
  • Jonny Wilkinson: How to Play Rugby My Way. Headline Book Publishing, ISBN 0-7553-1337-2

Web links

Commons : Jonny Wilkinson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Queen's birthday honors list: knights outnumber dames five to one in: The Guardian, June 12, 2015, accessed June 13, 2015
  2. Jonny Wilkinson MBE. BBC, December 31, 2002, accessed March 11, 2009 .
  3. ^ Jonny Drops His Way to World Record. (No longer available online.) Rugby Football Union, February 25, 2008, archived from the original on December 4, 2008 ; accessed on March 11, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.england-rugby.com
  4. ^ Charlie Caroe: Jonny Wilkinson claims Test points record. Daily Telegraph, March 8, 2008, accessed March 11, 2009 .
  5. ^ Wilkinson breaks record as Bristol slump again. (No longer available online.) Guinness Premiership, September 26, 2008, formerly original ; accessed on March 11, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.guinnesspremiership.com  
  6. ^ Wilkinson set to miss Six Nations. BBC, October 10, 2008, accessed March 11, 2009 .
  7. ^ Sale 25-32 Newcastle: Charlie Hodgson breaks scoring record. The Daily Mirror, March 9, 2009; accessed March 11, 2009 .
  8. ^ Wilkinson agrees to join Toulon. BBC, May 18, 2009, accessed May 18, 2009 .
  9. Jonny Wilkinson bows out in style as Toulon beat Castres to claim Top 14 play-off final - a winner to the end in: The Daily Telegraph, May 31, 2015, accessed on August 29, 2015
  10. Jonny Wilkinson: England World Cup winner to retire on: BBC News , May 19, 2014, accessed August 29, 2015
  11. BBC Sport: England World Cup winner to retire. May 19, 2014, accessed May 21, 2014 .
  12. ^ Jonny Wilkinson: How to Play Rugby My Way . Headline Book Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-7553-1337-2 , pp. 214 (English).