Jonny Wilkinson, in the Hollywood film of his life, would have kicked that World Cup-winning drop-goal against Australia and promptly announced his retirement. After all, how could he top that?
But as the England flyhalf has discovered during the last four years, life isn’t always like they tell you it is in the movies.
Had he quit four years ago there would have been those he said he was too young, just as they did more than 30 years earlier when legendary Wales number 10 Barry John retired the season after playing a starring role in the British and Irish Lions breakthrough Test series victory in New Zealand in 1971.
John exited the stage aged 27; Wilkinson was only 23 in 2003. The other huge difference, of course, between their careers was that John played in the amateur era and Wilkinson is a professional.
It’s one thing to say you will stop playing a game, quite another to call time on your career.
That drop-goal four years ago, which finally saw England defeat Australia in extra-time as they became the first side from the northern hemisphere to win the World Cup, cemented Wilkinson’s iconic status within the English game as the go-to-guy in a crisis, the man who could land a goal-kick from just about anywhere on the field.
Yet it was to be 1 169 days after the World Cup final before he appeared for England again following a litany of injuries that appeared as if they ought to belong to several players, let alone one.
Wilkinson’s knee ligaments, arm, shoulder and kidneys all suffered damage. Most worrying of all were the combined shoulder and arm injuries, sometimes caused by a ”stinging” pain which resulted after he’d put in a tackle.
Few of the game’s great flyhalves have been quite as defensively committed as Wilkinson, England’s record points scorer, who positively relishes the physical challenge of tackling.
However, when he came back part of England’s strategy was to try to save him from himself by relieving him of some defensive responsibility.
The world champions knew, because there is a ruthless logic to all professional sport, that opponents were likely to target Wilkinson with a view to ensuring he was no longer a factor in the game.
In his absence, various alternatives were tried with luckless Sale stand-off Charlie Hodgson suffering most from ”not being Jonny”.
Meanwhile, the man himself was insisting he was becoming less obsessive regarding practice although few within the world of classical music would think it exceptional for a concert violinist to hone their skills for several hours or more each day.
Like many injured players, Wilkinson’s reputation soared the more he didn’t play and reached unsustainable heights.
Clive Woodward’s decision play him in the 2005 Lions team in New Zealand, his first taste of Test rugby since his Sydney heroics, ended in predictable failure with a stinger injury in the second Test cutting short his tour.
Now, having made just seven starts for England since the last World Cup he finds himself cast in the role, by some at least, of trying to salvage this one for the faltering title-holders.
But so far the indications are not good. His goal kicking is no longer an absolute guarantee of points while his check and sideways jinky running in open play, which decreases his pace, is a tactic that has become increasingly easy for his opponents to defend against.
At the same time, it makes it harder for those outside him in a struggling, stuttering, England back division. Wilkinson, whose optimism has helped sustain him through the dark days of rehabilitation, said in June: ”The concept of even thinking about losing any games has always been something I have never been able to compute.
”We are going to have to find an extreme togetherness and a positivity that is going to allow the best to come out of everyone under big pressure.”
Fine sentiments. But the worry must be that England may have left it too late and that the wait for Wilko proves in vain. — Sapa-AFP