February 20, 2002

Is Johnny Wilkinson the best fly-half in the world?: On Saturday, England crushed Ireland in the Six Nations rugby, and moved to the top of the Zurch World Rankings as a result. Johnny Wilkinson was outstanding. Not just in his kicks at goal, but in his running, passing and tactical kicking as well. Perhaps I asked the wrong question. Is Wilkinson the best rugby player, period, in the world at the moment? And are England really the world's best? (Guardian reports)

posted by salmacis to football at 05:17 AM - 4 comments

OK, I'll bite. What's a fly-half?

posted by tieguy at 12:53 PM on February 20, 2002

The fly-half is one of the backs. Here's a diagram showing the positions. From what I understand about rugby (which isn't much), the position is a very rough equivalent to the quarterback in American football, or maybe more like the point guard in basketball.

posted by kirkaracha at 01:46 PM on February 20, 2002

Time was that Neil Jenkins' boot had Wales thinking they were on their way back to the top, but Jinks never had Wilkinson's all round ability. (This audio clip brought a tear to my eye, though.) So, yes and yes, probably.

posted by ceiriog at 03:34 PM on February 21, 2002

I was there (thanks to the generosity of my wonderful aunt, public shout outs to you) it was a ticketstubs moment certainly. Having seen Wilkinson a fair ammount in the Premiership and Internationally he is a class above everyone else I've ever seen and that includes God himself (or Michael Lynagh to all you non Sarries fans). His all round excellence in every field of the game is just astonishing. For an American metaphor imagine him as a Quarterback, Running back, Wide Reciever and Linebacker all rolled into one. A serious talent. As for the England team all over? Yes they're the best in the world, man for man and collectively as a team. Nobody else is close to the way that they can play. That fourty minutes around half time was just awesome in every way. They're redifining the whole way that the game of rugby is and will be played. If they can keep this up then we should win the world cup but even if they don't it's a psychologically crucial blow that the centre of rugby innovation isn't in the Southern Hemisphere anymore. And salmacis I fully support our combined effort to categorise rugby under 'football' nice one!

posted by nedrichards at 08:42 PM on February 21, 2002

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