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Jonny Wilkinson was a kicking flanker. When I first started playing rugby in 2009, I heard this adage and was immediately in awe of a man that could not only kick goals, but could flatten even the largest of men running into him.
I had never paid the oval ball much notice before that year, so the drop-goal of the 2003 Rugby World Cup was something that I remembered hearing about but had never actually seen.
In the time that has passed, I have come to see the aforementioned phrase as not just an insult to the man himself, but a marker of how hearsay can become so ingrained in the perception of a sportsman that it ends up being taken as fact.
The reality is that Jonny Wilkinson was so much more than just a metronomic left boot and the uncommon ability to tackle above his weight.
As a “Pom” whose fixation with the Wallabies has been the cause of many an argument with friends and teammates, the idea that Wilkinson was just a kicker comes from the relatively small number of people that watch the Premiership in SANZAR nations.
This points to a broader issue that I hope to touch on later.
Wilkinson started his career with Newcastle Falcons, and at the age of 18 was sparring with Inga Tuigamala (a 19-cap All Black) for a starting berth at 12. To say he was ridiculously talented is an understatement, and the fact that he often played ahead of Tuigamala is a massive point for Jonny, because he was not even kicking for Newcastle at this point. Rob Andrew was.
It’s easy to see why Wilkinson was picked, even without his kicking, if you watch a few videos of him at this point in his career. He was absolutely electric, and his footwork was reminiscent of a young Jonathan Davies, although admittedly not of the same lofty standard.
In fact, Wilkinson’s first cap for England came on the wing, as a replacement for Mike Catt. He had been selected for the England squad as a centre, not at 10, in his first season of professional rugby.
It was only when Rob Andrew retired that Wilkinson moved into fly half, both for club and country.
His first start at fly half was certainly memorable. The occasion was made even more intriguing because the opposition 10 was also extremely new to the position, playing only his second Test there.
I am of course talking about the 76-0 rout of England by the Wallabies in 1998, whose 10 that day was none other than the great Stephen Larkham. Wilkinson missed two penalties in this game, but as the article written for the BBC at the time put it, the game was a simple case of boys against men.
The years between the ‘tour of hell’ and ‘that’ drop goal were a period of growth for the England side, which during this time was often chastised for playing ‘boring’ rugby.
A common explanation for this view is that England has terrible weather, therefore mauling and scrummaging are often more important than running and passing. There is definitely a shred of truth in that. Our weather can at times render the silkiest of passers a tighthead prop, but what people often forget is that the England team of 2003 could win a game in so many different ways that beating them was not a feat easily achieved.
This, then, was a side reminiscent of the All Blacks in the decade gone by.
What was the point, I’m sure someone must have asked, attempting to beat up the Springboks? Or match the guile of the Wallabies? Why not beat the Wallabies up, and run rings around the Springboks?
The England side that is so often called boring were simply pragmatic. They did what Ewen McKenzie strives to do with the Wallabies and did with the Reds in 2011 – they won games by changing to suit the opposition.
The idea that a backline containing Will Greenwood, Jason Robinson, Josh Lewsey and Austin Healy can be described as boring is ludicrous.
I may have digressed a tad, but he point is England were not the one-trick ponies that they have been perceived to be.
According to Stats Guru, Jonny Wilkinson won every game bar one he played in an England shirt between the 10 November, 2001 and 10 February, 2007. The game he lost was naturally against the French, in 2002.
This period for Wilkinson is blighted by an injury run that makes Wycliff Palu look like iron man, but even taking that into account the duration for which Wilkinson won games is an incredible feat.
The second stat is that for this period of six years and four months, 38.6% of the place kicks that Wilkinson hit were conversions, not penalties. Over his career for England, this percentage actually increases to 40.4%, and these become 34% and 37.1% respectively if you include drop goals.
Now I’m not sure how this compares to other fly halves, but over a third of your kicks at goal being conversions suggest to me that the England sides that Wilkinson played in could score tries as well as anyone.
People in the southern hemisphere hardly watching the Premiership, possibly becasuse it is A) seen as a version of Jakeball with smaller players and B) on TV at stupid times for all in the Southern Hemisphere but the South Africans.
Not much can be done about B, but I think A is extremely worrying indeed.
Rugby union fans watch a sport that can truly be called global, with a World Cup in which more than three nations contend for the title, so neglecting to watch rugby in a different country, regardless of its quality, is a massive waste. The Southern Hemisphere can learn just as much from the North as the North can from the south.
In terms of quality, I challenge anyone to watch this year’s Aviva Premiership final and say that any Super Rugby team would have anything but an incredibly hard time against Saracens or Northampton.
In terms of attacking flair, hopping up and down in England tends to lead to being clattered, and so the stepping is usually of the Jason Robinson variety – simple and fast.
And in the Premiership, the running line is king. Centres that can bisect defensive lines without being touched a la Larkham are far more common up here than they are in Super Rugby.
And finally, in terms of the incessant scrummaging and the clueless refereeing of it, the situation is not quite as bad as it is said to be, and is certainly not much worse than it can get in Super Rugby.
So there we have it. Jonny Wilkinson was much more than the greatest goal kicker that the world has ever seen, and English rugby is not boring in any sense of the word.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.