Jonathan Peter "Jonny" Wilkinson OBE (born 25 May 1979 in Frimley, Surrey) is an English rugby union player and 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 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 final.
He plays his club rugby for Toulon following twelve seasons in the English Premiership for Newcastle Falcons. Wilkinson has also toured twice with the British and Irish Lions, in 2001 and 2005, 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.
At the age of twelve, while at Pierrepont School, Frensham, Wilkinson told his rugby master "I want to play for England, that's all I want". He went on to excel not only at rugby, but also at tennis, cricket, and basketball. From Pierrepont, he moved to Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire, where he took A-levels in French, Biology and Chemistry and gained a place at the University of Durham. However, in 1997 he gave up the student life to become a professional rugby player with the Newcastle Falcons.
Wilkinson started his career at Newcastle School of Rugby as an inside centre, competing for a place with international veterans such as Inga Tuigamala, and British Lion Alan Tait. He became a fixture in a side that went on to win the 1997/8 Premiership title. By March 1998 he was in the full England Test squad. Wilkinson began his international career as an unused replacement against Scotland, before coming off the bench, replacing Mike Catt, to play on the wing against Ireland at Twickenham on 4 April 1998; he was only 18.
In July 2009 he was recalled into the England Elite Squad for the first time since the 2008 Six Nations and was confirmed in the squad for the 2009 Autumn internationals after a successful run of games with Toulon. Wilkinson was then selected to tour Australia with the elite squad but was not selected as first choice fly half, nevertheless Wilkinson landed the winning points in the second test between England and Australia.
Injury forced him to miss out on the 2010 autumn internationals, in the process losing his position as the all-time leading points scorer in test rugby to Dan Carter. However, Wilkinson reclaimed the record during the 2011 Six Nations, a tournament during which he came off the bench in each of England's five games. He again lost the record to Carter in July 2011.
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. On 26 February 2011, Wilkinson regained the record for the highest tally of International points, overtaking Dan Carter of New Zealand by scoring a penalty against France in a Six Nations match at Twickenham. Carter then reclaimed the record on 30 July 2011 in the second 2011 Tri-Nations series match against South Africa.
Wilkinson passed Ronan O'Gara (522), to regain the overall points record total of 526 in the Six Nations, on 13 March 2010. Wilkinson holds the Rugby World Cup points record with 249 and is the only player to score points in two World Cup Finals.
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