Wilkinson was a superb kicker, in play, drop goals and penalty kicks. Had the heart of a lion and would stop anything that would come his way but if i'm honest he was more of a full back than a fly half for me. I think England have always been guilty of guilty of picking a more defensive than creative number 10 but I'm no expert just a casual fan of the international game.
I think that's a fair assessment of how England asked him to play. But I think he had more in his locker than we allowed him to show, he wasn't just a kicking robot. He was a way better player than Farrell is now. Toulon fans absolutely adore him and you're not going to win over French fans if you're limited technically. Meh, I suppose it won us a World Cup (Welsh fans, give me a ring when you get round to that) so I can't criticise the management too much. He was an absolutely superb tackler but to his own cost.
We had Lewsey, Robinson and Balshaw as options at 15 around then so not sure he'd have got a game there, he didn't have their dynamism. We did definitely still look to Catt to provide a bit more guile quite often rather than just letting Jonny play his own game.
Should not have gone on the dreadful 2005 Lions tour (which ended up being largely a 2003 tribute act, and a bad one at that) as he was nowhere near fit.
Wilkinson was an exceptional kicker, behind the worlds best set of forwards at the time. Free flowing attacking rugby would have been a ridiculous waste of the teams attributes. Not that I am a fan of that type of rugby, I mean England won the World Cup by devising a new method of keeping the ball in forwards for even longer.
Wilkos tackling was his downfall, too many times he went in for the big hit, when he should have just stopped the player. His body just couldn't take the damage
Interesting that you consider him the better player to Farrell, I have him as a better all round player, Wilkinson obviously was the better kicker.
I might do one of these on Ellery Hanley, now there was a rugby player....
Wilkinson was an exceptional kicker, behind the worlds best set of forwards at the time. Free flowing attacking rugby would have been a ridiculous waste of the teams attributes. Not that I am a fan of that type of rugby, I mean England won the World Cup by devising a new method of keeping the ball in forwards for even longer.
Wilkos tackling was his downfall, too many times he went in for the big hit, when he should have just stopped the player. His body just couldn't take the damage
Interesting that you consider him the better player to Farrell, I have him as a better all round player, Wilkinson obviously was the better kicker.
I might do one of these on Ellery Hanley, now there was a rugby player....
Woodward used the forwards as a battering ram but Wilkinson was his first line of defence. He still holds the tackling record for England at a Workd Cup with 121. Wilkinson and Woodward created the defensive fly half that you could argue Farrell is now.
Woodward still holds all kinds of kicking and points records and for a small rugby player he was a hell of a player.
I mentioned an infamous selection blunder on the cricket thread yesterday...well how about Woodward picking Paul Grayson ahead of Wilkinson for the 1999 quarter final vs South Africa!
I think it’s mentioned above, but Wilkinson is a much better touch player than he gets credit for. He was stuck behind the best pack in the world and had possibly the best full back in the world too. The England tactics clearly were designed to make the best of that.
When he got chance to play proper rugby at Toulon he was bloody brilliant and a total joy to watch.
Bit late but Rivaldo was my favourite player as a kid, a bit before I really got into football but still
I think Barca were playing Liverpool, gunna say I was about 13 so... 2003 ish. Always remember the commentator saying that every time he gets the ball something magic could happen and he was right
The ball to face thing though.... noob
OK just looked it up and my dates are clearly off. Can't quite work out what game I'm on about
Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. Since retiring from football in 2013, he has become a racehorse breeder and owner and regularly features as a sports pundit and commentator.
The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen was born in Chester and began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League, he finished as joint top scorer with 18 goals. He repeated this the following year and was Liverpool's top goal-scorer from 1997–2004, gaining his name as a proven goal-scorer despite suffering from a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d'Or. He went on to score 118 goals in 216 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool, and 158 goals in 297 total appearances. Regarded as one of the greatest Liverpool players, Owen came 14th in the "100 Players Who Shook The Kop", an official Liverpool fan poll. In 2004, Owen was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.
Owen moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in mid-2004; he was frequently used as a substitute. He scored 13 goals in La Liga before returning to England the following season where he joined Newcastle United for £16.8 million. After a promising start to the 2005–06 season, injuries largely ruled him out over the next 18 months. After his return, he became team captain and was the team's top scorer for the 2007–08 season. Newcastle were relegated in the 2008–09 season and Owen moved to Manchester United as a free agent. He spent three years at Old Trafford before joining Stoke City in September 2012. Owen is one of nine players to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. He is also the youngest player to have reached 100 goals in the Premier League. On 19 March 2013, Owen announced his retirement from playing at the end of the 2012–13 season.
Internationally, Owen first played for the senior England team in 1998, becoming England's youngest player and youngest goalscorer at the time. His performance at the 1998 FIFA World Cup brought him to national and international prominence and he went on to score in UEFA Euro 2000, the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. He is the only player to have scored in four consecutive major tournaments for England. He played at the 2006 World Cup, but suffered an injury which took him a year to recover from. Occasionally playing as captain, he is England's 11th-most-capped player and has scored a former national record (since overtaken by Wayne Rooney) of 26 competitive goals, with 40 in total from 89 appearances, most recently in 2008.
I don't think he was ever quite the same after his first hamstring injury (vs Leeds, about 1999 I think). He was still good, still quick, still a superb finisher but there was just that spark missing. Became a less thrilling player.
Never scored 20 league goals in a season for anyone, which is surprising.
You wouldn't have got a price on him breaking Bobby Charlton's England record at one point but his last international game was when he was 28.
An absolute WEIRDO as you can see from that last video. Reckons he has seen four films in his life and he "doesn't like them". Used to drive to Madrid airport every day to buy English papers. Would sit in the dark in his hotel room with his wife, watching English channels on mute. I'm not convinced he ever actually liked football that much. Liverpool fans don't like him, and not just because he ran his contract down and/or he later played for United. They love Fowler, but were indifferent to Owen even at his peak.
Absolutely took the piss at Newcastle, no wonder they hate him.
Looked as good as anyone when he first appeared - unplayable really. Injuries took their toll and he joined a long list of wunderkind English players effectively finished by 25 and who never achieved what they should. I'm hoping our improved attitude to youth football will stop this from happening going forward.
4-4-2 falling out of favour in club football from around 2004 onwards (though it's had a revival since, or at least variants of it pop up quite often now) didn't help him either. There's a reason why he always preferred playing with Heskey for both Liverpool and England. He had to leave Real because he wasn't getting a game, they had Raul who was untouchable and Ronaldo was still there, but how was he going to get a move to another elite club when pretty much all of them were playing one up front? That was never going to suit him.
Liverpool kind of span the line that they couldn't sort a fee out for him to come back but I doubt Benitez even wanted him.
Like all pace merchants once that is gone they're toast. Relied on good movement off the ball but only off the last man and was never a visionary passer or even had he vision of a good 1-2 to create space. Not that good at dribbling either but his timing off a Heskey flick was exceptional. The definition of a one trick pony. Owen was a good finisher but not in the class of Fowler or Shearer and once his knee injury happened he was finished.
Dull as ditchwater in interviews and probably the least interesting person on the planet. Oddball in the David Icke category.
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