A whole new world

JONNY WILKINSON emerged from the mania of television cameras and a thousand popping flashbulbs to insist that no-one could buy a piece of the world’s best rugby player if it interfered with his game.

The England fly-half enhanced his position as the most marketable rugby player with the extra-time drop-goal heroics which clinched the rugby World Cup for England against Australia.

But, with Aussie headlines proclaiming 'Jonny Rotten' and 'Jonny wrecks our dream', anyone queuing up to offer him millions, and it will be a long queue, could have a frustrating wait.

"My work ethic is that rugby takes precedence over everything," said Wilkinson, who enjoyed an earlyish night at England's Manly headquarters despite many of his team-mates celebrating well past dawn.

"If anything even remotely detracts from my life in a rugby sense it gets binned.

"If I have to kick longer because I don't feel it's going well, then whatever was supposed to be in that hour goes to waste.

"When I prepare well I feel happy. If I've not done as much as I can I don't play well and you can wave goodbye to everything else."

His obsession with perfection was underlined when head coach Clive Woodward revealed he had gone onto the field to give Wilkinson instructions before extra-time to boot the ball downfield at every opportunity in order to play in Australia's half.

"I said to Jonny, 'It's very simple, don't pass the ball, just whack the thing down their end because it's going to be won by penalties'," a smiling Woodward recalled. "All he kept saying to me was, 'I need to practice my goal-kicks. I looked at him and I said, Are we having a secret session?'

"That's what he did, he wandered off and started kicking a goal before the extra time started. So obviously I thought, 'He's not listened to a word I said there'.

"So I went and ran over and found [Mike Catt], and said, 'Catty, find Jonny and tell him to kick the damn thing down the other end of the pitch and just play behind the two wingers."

Wilkinson tried really hard to deny he was a superstar, even though he could hear the roar of 500 fans lining the surfers' promenade outside the team's hotel and who spent all day chanting his name and waiting for a glimpse of the 24-year-old.

They were rewarded when he walked down the sweeping staircase of the Manly Pacific hotel hand-in-hand with girlfriend Diana Stuart en route with his team-mates to a glittering IRB bash at which he received the international player of the year award.

"I don't want to waste any opportunities in my career. I can't afford to feel like I have any regrets. I'm going at it full on and I want to be part of a fantastic team. If that brings attention that gets a bit much now and again that's something I'll have to learn to deal with.

"I don't think I could live with the feeling of regret if I don't make the most of what I've got now.

"I've got many goals that I've ticked off and many goals still running. I want to improve as a player. I've had games in the World Cup, including the one that's just gone, where we've won and that takes precedence over anything but deep down you know you could have done things a bit better.

"I want to be able to find a way of doing those things.

"I can't live with the feeling that I didn't give my best. If I try my best and it doesn't go right I can accept that. If my mind's somewhere else I'd never live that down.

"I've got some fantastic sponsors and people around me, my agent and father, who allow me to get on with these things and fit them in a professional manner. I won't do things if I feel like I need a rest."

Ironically, Wilkinson, who clearly has not enjoyed being the most photographed player in the world this past week, was the first to start snapping himself in the Telstra stadium's changing rooms following England's victory.

"My mind was on the people who support me my family, my friends and team-mates," said Wilkinson.

"I wanted to get photos with the guys. I wanted to get photos with Mike Catt, whose not been in the squad for a long time and Paul Grayson who has been a massive influence.

"I got around and made sure I got a photo with Will (Greenwood) who I sit next to in the changing room and with Daws (Matt Dawson), who sits on the other side, and just thought how much energy I've taken from other people back home people like Blacky (Newcastle fitness coach Steve Black), my mum and dad and brother."

All perfectly normal, but then Wilkinson demonstrated just why so much of the talk this past month at times he has appeared anguished and reclusive has been about his mental state and his ability to handle the increasing pressure.

"It's been a long eight weeks," said Wilkinson. "And you have times when your sleep is interrupted and you go down to breakfast in the morning and you don't want to read papers and they're laid out on the breakfast table and you have to go and take a seat 20 yards away next to the window.

"Then someone picks up a paper and sits next to you and you have to move. It's a hard life avoiding that kind of thing. It comes with the job but it hasn't come the Friday before the game, it's come every day.

"At times you think 'When does it stop' and I think that's when you draw on the energy of your team-mates to understand it's not everything.

"It's a massive part of my life and I want it to be massive and make sure I make the most of it but at the end of the day I have my family to go back to and a great life in Newcastle."