In 1998 the Spice Girls were the biggest band on the planet, Bill Clinton was impeached, and Jonny Wilkinson started his career as a professional rugby player.
Seventeen years later the English champion has finally retired, with a resumé to marvel and envy.
Despite 13 major injuries (including knee and shoulder damage), Wilkinson won a World Cup, four Six Nations titles, two Heineken Cups and a French Top 14 championship.
In 97 Tests matches, Wilkinson scored 1246 points (7 tries, 169 conversions, 255 penalties, 36 drop goals). He was a member of the winning team 67 times.
For the Newcastle Falcons, Wilkinson played 138 games and scored 1489 points (25 tries, 196 conversions, 302 penalties, 22 drop goals). For Toulon, Wilkinson appeared in 127 games and scored 1697 points (5 tries, 161 conversions, 405 penalties, 46 drop goals).
These numbers tell you Wilkinson is the most prolific scorer in the history of the game and he was ruthlessly clinical!
Through his religious approach to practice, toughness and tactical prowess, Wilkinson got it done! He is not as dashing as Daniel Carter, but who would you prefer in the last ten minutes of a World Cup final?
That question maybe unfair towards Carter because he has never played a World Cup semi-final, but someone who can drop-kick, at will, off both feet is surely the only choice in that context. Besides, Wilkinson’s attacking skills have often been underrated. The teams that he has played for have played a more forward-orientated game
Wilkinson is a shrewd and durable legend of the game, a clinical performer who did what he had to do to win and didn’t care about style.
In 256 first class games, Daniel Carter has scored 3555 points (75 tries, 584 conversions, 587 penalties, 17 drop goals). Wilkinson has scored well over 4000 points in his professional rugby career.
When rugby Historian John Griffiths was asked on scrum.com in 2010 who the highest points scorer in rugby history was, he replied:
New Zealand’s Grant Fox scored 4,112 points comprising 29 tries (of which 25 were valued at four points and four worth five), 901 conversions, 683 penalty goals and 47 dropped goals in 303 first-class matches between 1982 and 1995.
New Zealand do not recognise the matches played by the 1986 Cavaliers in South Africa as having first-class status. Fox was a member of the tour party and appeared in five of the matches, scoring 62 points (a try, five conversions, 13 penalty goals and three dropped goals). Naas Botha of South Africa accumulated 3,781 – 44 tries (including 42 worth four points and two at five points), 669 conversions, 545 penalty goals and 210 dropped goals – in 277 first-class appearances between 1977 and 1995.
South Africa do count the Cavaliers’ tour matches as first-class. Botha played five times against the tourists – for North Transvaal and for the Springboks in the four ‘Tests’ – scoring 78 points (a try, seven conversions, 18 penalty goals and two dropped goals) which are included in the preceding figures.
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