There have been a couple of new video’s added to Jonny’s official site. To view them click on the link below

jonnywilkinson.com

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I had been debating all week about if I was going to go to Jonny’s book signing. There was no question I wanted to go, but I didn’t really want to drive all that way on my own. Plus I knew it would be a long night after what happened at his last book signing. In the end I booked the afternoon off and decided I am going, Jonny isn’t in this country much and I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t go.

Fortunately I have a wonderful boyfriend Luke, who after having an eye op that morning raced home and said he would come with me because he didn’t want me driving and waiting alone. So we set off at around 3pm and arrived at Twickers at just after 5pm. I went straight to the shop as my per-ordered copy of the book from Amazon came when I was at work and so I had to wait to collect it from the depot on monday grr! But it’s not so bad that will be the copy I read and mess up from reading it so many times no doubt! After buying 3 copies of the book, one for me, one for a friend and one for Luke’s sister, we went and joined the queue. At this point it didn’t seem that long a queue and I was a little disappointed at the turn out. How wrong was I?!

More and more people joined the queue and we got talking to a few others around us. Luke even lent a coat to one fan because it was so cold. But as we kept telling ourselves, it will be worth it! At about 8.30pm we finally reached the warmth of the shop! It was heaven after waiting outside in the cold for so long. We still had to queue inside for another 30 mins roughly but it didn’t seem so bad because we were warm.

Finally we reached the front of the queue and it was our time to meet Jonny. We’d been asked to write on a post it note what you wanted Jonny to write in your book. I had done that for the other two books but I didn’t have a clue what to get Jonny to write in mine. As a result it didn’t really matter because as soon as I said hello and he saw it was me he knew what to write. In fact he ended up wasting one book which I felt really bad about because he spelled my name as Sarah and not Sara . In the end he wrote this in my book.

Jonny then ased Luke about his eye as he had a patch on. He asked what he’d had done, if it hurt and if he had plently of painkillers.  He seemed really interested which was nice, it didn’t seem like he was asking just for something to say. I then said to Jonny that if he gets time to look on our Facebook page and on the site chat box as there are loads of comments of support for him, and sent him all your well wishes. So hopefully he will try and have a look. I hope he does there are some really nice comments from fans that I’m sure he would appreciate.

I then told Jonny about the Royal Mail losing Kens competiton prize and asked him if he wouldn’t mind signing a replacement. Which of course he did. I have proof and Ken if you read this I am sending this one special delivery this time!

I then had a phot taken with Jonny. I look awful with no make up on and so pale against tanned Jonny! He loked really well in flesh, obviously tired but he had had a long day and still another 4 1/2 hours of signing to do. But he spent time talking to every person and had photos with them all. He signed as many book as you would like plus one other item. As we were leaving I mentioned that I was thinking of going to the Newcastle v Toulon game in Dec and if he thought he would be playing. He said he wasn’t sure but it he thinks he should be so if he is he’d see us there. So I think that has made my mind up about that I’ll go to the game if he is playing thast good if not maybe he’ll be there anyway.

All in all I am so glad I went and it was well worth standing out in the cold. A big thank you to Jonny for doing it, the staff a the shop for organising and staying on late, and to Luke for coming with me even though he was in pain.

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Jonny met fans from 6pm to 2am last night at Twickenham, signing copies of his new book and posing for pictures he spent time with every fan.

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JONNY WILKINSON has revealed for the first time his battle with depression.

England star Wilko’s drive for perfection combined with the frustration of his succession of major injuries produced bouts of mental illness England’s World Cup-winning fly-half admits to being “obsessive” and confessed to finding it tough to get away from rugby when everyone else left the training ground.

Many outsiders dismissed his behaviour as eccentric but Wilkinson was actually suffering from a crippling mental torment that reduced him to:

Ripping training tops in seething frustration, Bellowing obscenities at gym walls, Screaming his terrors away under water, Stamping his kicking foot until it hurt, Biting into his hand, trying to pierce the skin, And all this became evident BEFORE he became a national hero by scoring the winning drop-goal in the 2003 World Cup final.

Wilkinson’s career has been interrupted repeatedly by a series of serious injuries.

The worst included a neck problem which required surgery, a fractured shoulder, a lacerated kidney and two bouts of major knee ligament damage.

Yet the fragile state of the Red Rose star’s mind broke cover as far back as 2002 after he agreed with England boss Clive Woodward to take a summer off and miss the Argentina tour.

Deprived of rugby, of his team-mates and the daily demands to excel that fuel his existence, Wilkinson nosedived into a state of anxiety and self-doubt.

In his new book, Jonny: My Autobiography which is published tomorrow by Headline Publishing, Wilko admits: “A sense of helplessness dominated my summer days.

“Everything felt pointless, and my natural reaction was to treat the problem as I do my kicking, work it out and keep working on it until you do.

“But by focussing so intensely, I just made it worse.”

Wilkinson returned from training one day and went to a local hotel to use their spa facilities.

Making sure he was alone, Wilkinson decided to try something extreme.

He added: “I lowered myself into the water until completely submerged and then let out a scream of total frustration.

“I came up for air then repeated the action.

“No words, just pure desperation. I carried on screaming as loud and long as I could. It’s the only way I can deal with the non-stop barrage of thoughts and negativity.”

Wilko’s condition deteriorated and after nearly two years out injured Wilkinson resorted to asking Newcastle doctor Graeme Wilkes for sleeping pills and experienced panic attacks when he feared something serious had gone wrong in his life.

Finally, Wilkinson went to see Wilkes and rather than talk about injury, told him of the torment in his head.

Wilkinson, 33, who has just played in his fourth World Cup and is second in the all-time table of Test points scorers, said: “Graeme said what I needed to hear: I had an illness.

“He explained the illness was controlling everything else and that was far more important to deal with than the injury I had.

“I was referred to a therapist and he explained the illness was the cause of my depression and my panic attacks — and that it had a cure — he assured me I wasn’t doomed.

The Sun

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Jonny Wilkinson was so upset with criticism of his performances for England that he contemplated retiring from Test rugby a year before the World Cup.

The fly-half said he met with manager Martin Johnson for four hours in October 2010 to discuss the possibility of quitting after 12 years with the national side.

“With England, my confidence had just disappeared,” Wilkinson said.

“I feel lower than I have ever felt before.

“The thought of not playing for England again makes me sick, but I simply do not know if I can carry on.”

Wilkinson was widely cited in British media as a key reason for England’s often dour performances under Johnson, with critics referring to his deep positioning, kicking game and supposed tactical inflexibility.

Toby Flood replaced Wilkinson for the final game of England’s 2010 Six Nations campaign and was lauded for his role in a narrow defeat to eventual champion France in Paris.

“In the media, I became a scapegoat for our performances in the Six Nations,” Wilkinson wrote in his autobiography.

“And it seemed to me that people were happy enough for it to be that way.”

Johnson and backs coach Brian Smith persuaded Wilkinson to carry on and he began the World Cup in September this year as first-choice fly-half.

Planetrugby.com

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England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has revealed his anger at the match balls used during the 2011 World Cup and has hit out at the tournament organisers in the process.

Wilkinson suffered from some of the poorest kicking form of his career during the World Cup in New Zealand and pinpointed the unpredictable behaviour of the match balls as the root of the problem. England kicking coach Dave Alred and conditioning coach Paul Stridgeon were banned from England’s pool game against Scotland at Eden Park after they switched the balls used for conversions during the win over Romania.

Wilkinson revealed in his autobiography, which is being serialised in The Times, that the match balls were a “joke” due to their inconsistent movement – something that could not be blamed on the weather as England played three of their pool games in the enclosed Otago Stadium.

The England fly-half described the different flight of the practice balls and the match balls and how the unpredictability derailed his game. “My feeling is that it’s just horribly unprofessional and an extremely bitter pill to swallow that, at the biggest tournament in the sport, we’re having to deal with this,” Wilkinson said. “Again and again I’m hitting the same kick every time but it’s non-match ball straight through the middle, match ball to the right.

“The problem is that when you feel like you’re smashing it and the feedback is telling you that everything is great, yet the ball is swinging both ways and missing one way and then the other, you’re left with a very difficult situation. From then on it’s a joke.

“The organisers claim that all the balls are the same, but they’re not. If they were they wouldn’t be doing this.”

Wilkinson had refused to comment on the ball-switch issue during the World Cup but now admits he was desperate to avoid using certain balls during the pool game against Romania.

“It’s not exactly surprising that I wouldn’t want a ball that flies miles from where it’s supposed to,” he added. “I’m sick to my stomach of thinking about how hard I’ve practised kicking over all those years and what little good it has done me at such an important time.

“It angers me.”

ESPNScrum.com

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Jonny Wilkinson has admitted feeling exasperated by the off-field “naivety” of some of his fellow England players during England’s disappointing World Cup campaign and revealed how he was moved to address the group during the tournament over their “lack of hunger” on the field.

Throughout their time in New Zealand England’s players courted the wrong sort of headlines, most notably when Mike Tindall led a group of players late night drinking at a club where dwarf throwing formed the centrepiece to the night’s entertainment.

Wilkinson, a self confessed obsessive professional, was not part of the group, indeed, he says the last time he went out drinking following an England match was at the end of the previous World Cup.

While unwilling to condemn players for having a well earned drink during a long tour, and conscious that he inhabits in another extreme that is not to be prescribed to everyone, Wilkinson believes the consequences were inevitable.

“When I was 20 or 21 years old, with England, I would go out after some games,” admits Wilkinson, in his forthcoming autobiography. “I needed the mental clear out before I could move to the next one.

“So I don’t have a view on other people [going out drinking]. It works for some, not for others.

“What I cannot understand is the naivety of people going out to the extent that they did and it not crossing their minds it would find its way back to the media.

“With a camera on pretty much every phone these days, how could it not come back?

“What is required is individual responsibility and not Johnno at his wit’s end because the inevitable has happened and the night out has found its way in to the newspapers.”

Wilkinson reveals that a team meeting was called following what became known as ‘dwarf-gate’ with players encouraged to air their views.

“Some of the guys say you can’t just stop doing everything because of the media, which is pretty fair.

“On the other side is the big question that we need to ask ourselves: what are we here for and what have we worked so hard to be here for?

“If there is any consensus, it’s that we need to be very careful from now on. But it is a conversation I feel almost completely unable to contribute to.

“My own position is so far on the obsessive side of preparation and professionalism that I fear my point of view is not going to be share by anyone.”

Wilkinson, who in an honest and candid telling for his professional life story admits that after the summer tour for Australia in 2010 he feared his time with England had come to a natural end, was less reticent to speak when matters turned to England’s poor performances on the field of play.

Watching England’s 41-10 victory over Georgia in the group stage from the bench, the No 10 was horrified at what he saw, despite the victory.

England had lacked urgency and appeared to abandon the “values we had set att he start of the campaign about being ruthless, professional and together as a team.”

Instead individuals we playing for themselves, attempting to showboat and lacking respect for their opponents.

The following day, after captain Lewis Moody had spoken at a team meeting, Wilkinson asked to take the floor as well.

“With [Moody's] permission, I tell the squad that I cannot believe that it has come to this, where our defence coach, Mike Ford, has had to ask a group of players to buckle down and give it a bit more.

I say that there are things we’re doing in training that we’re not doing in games and mistakes that we’re making that we are not correcting, that there’s sometimes a lack of hunger on the field, a lack for desire to get things right.

“For me the pure basics of rugby are not passing, catching, kicking: the basics are simply working yourself in to the ground and doing whatever it takes for 80 minutes.

“I don’t often speak to the squad and hardly ever in this way, but I carry on. I say no one ever regretted giving it their best shot, but from now on we have to show how much it really matters to us.

“When we get things right, we’re a great team and we can do whatever we want.

“But when we don’t, we’re just average. We’ve got one chance at this. If we don’t take it, the regrets will last forever.”

England’s bowing out at the quarter-final stage to France proves that either Wilkinson’s words weren’t headed or Johnson’s side simply lacked the quality to deliver on their pre-Rugby World Cup promise.

Telegraph

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Hi Guys,
I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m excited to be at Twickenham Stadium from 6pm – 8 pm on Friday 11th November. I’ll be there for a book signing to celebrate the launch of ‘Jonny: My Autobiography’, and wanted to invite you all to come along.

Writing the book has been a really enjoyable and beneficial experience. It’s given me the opportunity to reflect on past endeavour’s, both good and bad, revisit some really fond memories and learn a fair bit about myself too.

A huge amount of work has gone into it, and I can happily say that the book represents a very honest account of my life and myself both on the field and away from Rugby.

It would be great to see you there. Now that I’m living in France chances to interact with rugby supporters can be few and far between. I’m hoping that the book signing will provide an ideal opportunity to meet you all.

I really hope you can make it.

JW

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Jonny will be at Twickenham Stadium Rugby Store on November 11th between 6pm to 8pm meeting fans and signing copies of his new book which is set to be released November 10th

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England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson kicked all of Toulon’s points as they beat Brive 18-3 at the Stade Félix-Mayol. Wilkinson kicked penalties in the second and 22nd minutes to give the hosts a 6-0 lead at the break . The Toulon fly-half added a further two penalties in the early stages of the second half before the game sparked into life with an altercation between Davit Kubriashvili and Pablo Henn.

Both players were sent to the sin bin and during their absence Wilkinson landed a further two penalties while replacement Mathieu Belie kicked Brive’s first points of the game from a penalty. Brive’s cause was not aided by a second yellow card – this time for former England centre Jamie Noon for killing the ball. Down to 14 men for the rest of the game, Brive failed to threaten in the closing stages.

Scrum.com

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