Famous People > Jonny Wilkinson - Rugby Player

Jonny Wilkinson

Jonny Wilkinson (born 25 May 1979 at Frimley in Surrey) is an English rugby union player and current Captain of the England Rugby Union team. He plays his club rugby for the Zurich Premiership side Newcastle Falcons.

He plays at fly half, and is particularly known for the accuracy of his kicking and his fierce tackling. Whilst strength in the former discipline is not unusual in a fly-half, strength in the latter is very rare, which is one of the reasons he is generally rated as the finest fly-half playing the game today.

He has a reputation for an obsessive approach to training; in particular spending hours a day on goal-kicking practice. This has shown some dividends; in 2003 he kicked the winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time of the final of the Rugby World Cup against Australia, and soon after was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Wilkinson was also named the 2003 IRB World Player of the Year.

He was spotted by former England fly-half Rob Andrew and brought along with his family to live in Newcastle.

He made his England debut in 1998 at the age of 18. By the end of 2003 he had scored 817 points (more than twice as many as any other England player) in 52 matches for his country.

His rate of scoring suggests that, barring injury, Wilkinson should break the current (2004) international world record points tally of 1,052 (held by Neil Jenkins) by 2007. However, he has not played the game at international level since the 2003 World Cup final due to injury.

In 2003 he became the youngest ever Rugby Union player to receive a New Year's Honour with an MBE, and received an OBE in 2004.

Wilkinson was named Captain of the England team on 4 October 2004, replacing Lawrence Dallaglio who had resigned five weeks earlier.