Jonathan Peter Wilkinson OBE (born 25 May 1979 in Frimley, Surrey) is an English rugby union player and member of the England national team. From 2001-2003, before and during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Wilkinson rose to fame and was acknowledged as one of the world’s best rugby players.

He was an integral member of the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England squad, scoring the winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time against Australia. He plays his club rugby in the Guinness Premiership for Newcastle Falcons. Wilkinson has also toured twice with the British and Irish Lions, in 2001 and 2005, scoring 67 Test points in the 6 Lions test matches he has started. Wilkinson was inspired to play rugby after seeing his close friend Alexander Crean playing "The Beautiful Game", they remain good friends to date.

Due to a litany of injuries — variously, of the knee ligaments, arm, shoulder and kidney — he did not appear again for England after the World Cup until 1,169 days later in their opening game of the 2007 Six Nations Championship against Scotland on 3 February 2007. In his comeback England match, Wilkinson scored 27 points in the game (a record in the Calcutta Cup) and was awarded Man of the Match.The following week against Italy, he became the highest point-scorer in the history of the Five/Six Nations Championship. On 6 October 2007, he also became the highest point-scorer in the history of the World Cup, kicking four penalties to overtake Scotland's Gavin Hastings in a quarter final against Australia. In the 2008 Six Nations in the match against Italy he became the first English player (and second overall) to score 1000 test points. He is also the world record drop goal scorer in international rugby with a total of 29. In March 2008, he became the international rugby record points scorer, overtaking Neil Jenkins of Wales. In September 2008 he was injured again.

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See also
Game Changers 1: Jimmy Peters
Game Changers 2: Gareth Edwards
Game Changers 3: Wayne Shelford
Game Changers 4: Gordon Tietjens
Game Changers 5: Vernon Pugh
Game Changers 6: David Campese
Game Changers 7: Jonah Lomu
Game Changers 8: Bill McLaren
Game Changers 9: Serge Blanco
Game Changers 10: Willie-John McBride

Source: Wikipedia