Jonny Wilkinson

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Jonny Wilkinson bigraphy, stories - Professional rugby union player

Jonny Wilkinson : biography

25 May 1979 –

Jonathan Peter "Jonny" Wilkinson OBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English rugby union player and former member of the England national team. Wilkinson rose to acclaim from 2001 to 2003, before and during the 2003 Rugby World Cup and was acknowledged as one of the world’s best rugby union players.

He was an integral member of the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning England squad, scoring the winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time against Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final. He then came back from several injuries to lead England to the final of the 2007 world cup. He plays his club rugby union for Toulon following twelve seasons in the English Premiership with the Newcastle Falcons. Wilkinson has also toured twice with the British and Irish Lions, in 2001 to Australia and 2005 to New Zealand, scoring 67 Test points in the 6 Lions test matches he has started. On 3 April 2009 at Guildford Cathedral, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Surrey for services to the sports industry. He announced his retirement from the English national squad in early December 2011.

Early life

Born in Frimley, Surrey, Wilkinson attended Pierrepont School, Frensham and Lord Wandsworth College. He gained a place at the University of Durham. However, in 1997 he gave up the student life to become a professional rugby union player with the Newcastle Falcons. at thesun.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2011

Personal life

Jonny’s brother, Mark, was also a Newcastle player, and made sixteen appearances in the Premiership for the side between 2002 and 2005, predominantly as a center. His father, Phil, was also a rugby player and cricketer, and his mother, Philipa, played squash at county level.

The Newcastle Falcons’ fitness trainer Steve Black has become particularly influential on Wilkinson’s rugby career. Wilkinson has previously stated that he respects Black a great deal, and that Black taught him a lot about "values and ethics".Wilkinson, Jonny. How to Play Rugby My Way, Headline Publishing (2005), p.215.

Wilkinson says Richard Hill and Mike Catt are his closest friends in the England rugby set-up. In 2001, he also acknowledged his friendships with former hooker Phil Greening and winger Dan Luger to be similarly strong. In his life after rugby, Wilkinson has stated that he wishes to get more involved in coaching, especially children and at "an elite level".Wilkinson, Jonny. How to Play Rugby My Way, Headline Publishing (2005), p.214.

Wilkinson is widely known as a teetotaler, but broke that habit after England lost to South Africa in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final.

Wilkinson has been following Buddhist principles and teachings to help control his perfectionist tendencies according to an interview he gave with The Times newspaper.

Honours

Newcastle Falcons

  • Premiership – 1997–98 Allied Dunbar Premiership winner
  • Powergen Cup winner 2001, 2004

Toulon

  • Heineken Cup winner 2013
  • Top 14 Runner Up 2012, 2013
  • Amlin Challenge Cup Runner Up 2010, 2012

International

  • Rugby World Cup Winner 2003
  • Rugby World Cup runner up 2007
  • Six Nations winner 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2011
  • Six Nations Championship Grand Slam 2003

International records

England won 67 of the 91 games Wilkinson played in. Wilkinson scored a record 29th Test drop goal against France in the 2008 Six Nations Championship. His first converted penalty against Scotland on 8 March 2008, took him 3 points past Wales’s Neil Jenkins tally of 1090 Test rugby points. This achievement came due to the IRB retrospectively granting full Test status to the 2005 British and Irish Lions warm-up test against Argentina, in which he scored 20 points, without which he would have remained behind Jenkins on that day. Two more penalties in the second half took his tally to 1099 points. However, the IRB also awarded Jenkins his own retrospective tally of 41 points from Lions Tours, but Jenkins’ combined total of 1090 is still behind that of Wilkinson. Even if Wilkinson’s points from Lions Tours were excluded, he has still scored over 70 more Test points for England than Jenkins did for Wales.