On this day: Jonny Wilkinson breaks points record on England return
Jonny Wilkinson marked his international return with a record-breaking performance as England opened their Six Nations campaign with victory over Scotland at Twickenham, on this day in 2007.
Wilkinson was back after injury and illness for his first England appearance since scoring the drop goal that had secured the 2003 World Cup.
And the fly-half delivered a man-of-the-match display, notching 27 points from a try, drop-goal, five penalties and two conversions, as the team beat Scotland 42-20 in their first match under Brian Ashton.
Wilkinson’s haul was a new Calcutta Cup record, breaking Rob Andrew’s tally of 24 from 1995.
The then 27-year-old said: “Someone said I’d scored a few points and that’s good, but my job in the team is to kick goals.
“To be honest, at 7-3 down I would have taken a win at any cost. But fortunately for me the ball went over today and I came through it fine.
“It has been a great team day. I’m a big believer in what you get out is what you put in and I have prepared well.
“I prefer to go into games tired but heavily prepared and today was the reward for all the preparation I’ve done.”
As well as Wilkinson, who was left bloodied from a cut lip sustained in a collision early on, there was also a comeback for Jason Robinson – the wing scored two tries in what was his first England appearance since retiring from Test rugby in 2005. Magnus Lund also crossed for Ashton’s side.
Scotland threatened a shock when Simon Taylor grabbed a first-half try, but they had to wait until the 77th minute for a second via replacement Rob Dewey.
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I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
England played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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