'It's not me kicking it' - Jonny Wilkinson recalls World Cup-winning moment
- Published
Wilkinson's decisive kick in the 2003 World Cup final
Jonny Wilkinson says his World Cup-winning drop-goal for England felt like an out-of-body experience.
Fly-half Wilkinson landed the drop-goal against Australia with just 26 seconds left of the 2003 final in Sydney., external
It remains the only time England have won the event, after the current side lost this year's final to South Africa.
Recalling his winning strike for BBC Radio 4's Don't Tell Me The Score, Wilkinson said: "It's not me kicking it, it's a knowing of it."
Wilkinson, who made his international debut in 1998 and played the last of his 91 Tests at the 2011 World Cup, has the highest number of points for England, with 1,179.
By far the most momentous of his 36 drop-goals came in the dying seconds of extra time in the 2003 World Cup final - with his less favoured right boot - putting England into a 20-17 lead.
"I'm just feeling the ball, then I set the ball down and drop it and as it drops the ball turns ever so slightly towards me and forwards," he remembers of the kick, which added to the four penalties he also recorded in the match.
"If it goes too far towards me it will change the kick completely but it's gone just a tiny bit which means I am going to miss the sweet spot of the ball but I'll catch it just underneath which means it will spin a lot quicker, it will go a lot shorter but it will be a hell of a lot straighter.
"I can feel my leg going back but it's not me kicking it, it's a knowing of it. As I hit the ball the sensation is what I knew it was going to be.
"It's only when the ball gets a few yards past the post I then realise what the hell has happened and I do this half-hearted celebration which is almost disbelief because I hadn't been there to really see it.
"It led it to be - not a memory that I treasure because I don't have much memory of it - but just an experience which gave me a glimpse of life a little bit outside the boundaries of what I thought was possible - something bigger."