Tributes paid to rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson as he bows out

Tributes have been paid to former Newcastle Falcons star Jonny Wilkinson after the legendary fly-half played his last game on British soil.

The 34-year-old announced his retirement earlier this week and played his second last match for French side Toulon at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in last night’s Heineken Cup Final against Saracens.

He plays his last ever game next weekend.

In addition to being England’s goal-kicking hero at the 2003 World Cup in Australia, Wilkinson collected 91 caps and was a key player at Newcastle Falcons for more than 12 years.

 

Wilkinson’s Newcastle team-mate Dave Walder paid tribute last night. He told the Sunday Sun: “For our first five years together at Newcastle I used to kick with Jonny every day,” said the former Newcastle fly-half. “That quickly took its toll because my body couldn’t keep up with his. His work ethic was immense.

“I learned a lot from Jonny and that’s probably the biggest legacy that he leaves. He was a friend and, while I was at university in Durham, Jonny would often want to hear about my uni life.

“He was living the professional rugby player’s life at 17 and he’d committed himself to the sport even then.”

 

Wilkinson began his career at the Falcons in 1997 playing for the under-21s. He left the region in 2009 to join Toulon as one of only five men to score more than 1,000 points in international rugby. England World Cup winner Mike Tindall hailed him as the “ultimate professional”.

England coach Stuart Lancaster added: “He’s probably the most influential player in the English rugby game.”

A famous Sunday Sun front page reporting on the 2003 World Cup win had the headline “That’s My Boy”. We told how Jonny’s mum Phillipa had been too nervous to watch the game and gone to Tesco!

Article source: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/George-Ford-shoulder-surgery-confirmed-Bath-Rugby/story-21135020-detail/story.html

Tributes paid to rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson as he bows out