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On this day: Jonny Wilkinson breaks points record on England return
By PA
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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Latest Comments
That's really stupidly pedantic. Let's say the gods had smiled on us, and we were playing Ireland in Belfast on this trip. Then you'd be happy to accept it as a tour of the UK. But they're not going to Australia, or Peru, or the Philippines, they're going to the UK. If they had a match in Paris it would be fair to call it the "end-of-year European tour". I think your issue has less to do with the definition of the United Kingdom, and is more about what is meant by the word "tour". By your definition of the word, a road trip starting in Marseilles, tootling through the Massif Central and cruising down to pop in at La Rochelle, then heading north to Cherbourg, moving along the coast to imagine what it was like on the beach at Dunkirk, cutting east to Strasbourg and ending in Lyon cannot be called a "tour of France" because there's no visit to St. Tropez, or the Louvre, or Martinique in the Caribbean.
Go to commentsJust thought for a moment you might have gathered some commonsense from a southerner or a NZer and shut up. But no, idiots aren't smart enough to realise they are idiots.
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