Inside England’s World Cup win 20 years on after Jonny Wilkinson defied reality check

A LOOK BACK: England sat on top of the rugby world 20 years ago as fans gathered in the morning to watch Jonny Wilkinson’s drop goal thwart Australia in their own backyard.England’s finest hour will forever be defined by a perfectionist fly-half whose moment in time came one night in Sydney – or one morning in his homeland.

Only true icons are known by their first name alone, but Jonny, especially in the sporting world, only refers to one man. Jonny Wilkinson remains the country’s most popular rugby player and a drop goal in Australia two decades ago saw England reach the summit of a mountain. Heights they’ve never again scaled.Wilkinson was told as a teenager by his teacher that he couldn’t be a rugby player when he grew up because it wasn’t a job. There the shoots of a relentless player were born with that drive taking himself and his country to the pinnacle of a sport that, only eight years earlier, had been played for fun.Many of England’s Class of 2003 were part of the amateur turned professional era with the change seemingly coming overnight. Sir Clive Woodward, knighted after leading

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He said before the final: “My only goal when I left my business to take this job six years ago was to make England the best team in the world and win this thing. Now we have a real chance of doing exactly that.”

England learnt harsh lessons in the 1999 World Cup when a young Wilkinson was dropped for the quarter-final defeat to South Africa. It was a reality check as those in the Northern Hemisphere tried in vain to match up with their Southern Hemisphere counterparts.

After the turn of the millennium though those at Twickenham stuck to a plan that began to bear fruits. In 2000 Australia, only a year after their World Cup win, were defeated. South Africa were knocked over a few weeks later. Come 2002, Australia, New Zealand and the Springboks were beaten in successive weeks.A 2003 Six Nations Grand Slam had England sitting on top of the world and they headed down under with a sense of expectation. The winner of a crunch pool stage clash against South Africa would finish top of the group and, crucially, avoid the All Blacks.England though, by this point battle-hardened as well as gifted, produced the spirit necessary to overcome their neighbours and set up a semi-final with another rival – the French. France had been the only team to beat England in 2003 following a narrow victory in Marseille weeks before the World Cup.