England hails its reluctant hero
By Simon Hooper, CNN World Sport
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Wilkinson has become one of English sport's most recognizable faces.
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LONDON, England -- Rugby is often described as the ultimate team sport, a game in which the efforts and achievements of the individual can only be understood within the context of a wider collective struggle.
But, while all players may be equal, the sporting universe's cult of superstars demands that some are more equal than others, as English Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson is quickly discovering.
It was Wilkinson, of course, who kicked the dramatic goal late in extra time that sealed his side's 20-17 win over hosts Australia in Saturday's final in Sydney.
In the space of those few seconds, the 24-year-old flyhalf became one of most recognizable faces in Britain, and rugby's most marketable star since New Zealand's Jonah Lomu burst onto the scene at the 1995 World Cup.
Talk in the British media is even of a knighthood for the nation's super fly in the Queen's New Year honors list.
No superstar
For a player as naturally unassuming and publicity-shy as Wilkinson, who until now has been able to hide inside England coach Clive Woodward's team ethic, it isn't an easy position to accept.
"I am no superstar," said Wilkinson. "I am just a very proud member of a very proud team.
"I'm after a bit of peace and quiet. I want to get back now to be with my family, where I feel totally comfortable and totally myself."
But if the scenes at London's Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning -- where thousands of jubilant supporters turned out to greet home the returning heroes -- are anything to go by, it may be a while before he gets his wish.
It is testament to rugby's relative low profile that Wilkinson was not better known before.
Among the sport's aficionados he was already acknowledged as one of the world's great players. He is hardly a recent arrival on Britain's sporting landscape either, having made his debut at 18 in 1998 -- around the same time as another English teenage prodigy, Michael Owen.
Life in the limelight
These days, the comparisons are more with England soccer captain David Beckham, someone to whom Wilkinson has admitted turning for advice on dealing with life in the limelight.
The parallels are there. Both have blonde (some might say bland), photogenic good looks. Both are renowned for practicing obsessively. But Wilkinson has a World Cup winner's medal, something that sets him apart from every English soccer player since 1966.
Wilkinson, already one of rugby's best-paid players, can also expect to move a little bit closer to Beckham in the earnings league.
His current income of around $2.5 million a year is likely to be at least trebled by sponsors hoping a little bit of World Cup glory will rub off on their products.
As for the anticipated revival of interest in English club rugby, it remains to be seen how long the World Cup effect will last.
In the short term, the presence of world champions such as Wilkinson will undoubtedly put a few extra hundred supporters on the gate.
But Wilkinson's Newcastle Falcons were watched by just 5,452 at their last home game, while the local soccer team draw in a capacity crowd of over 50,000 for every match.
Compared with a Premier League club's annual turnover of $96 million, a top-flight rugby side gets by on just $6.6 million a year. World Cup or no World Cup, the gulf between the sports will remain vast.
Yet the sport born and named on the playing fields of one of England's most privileged schools has always retained an exclusivity that sets it apart from its more populist cousin, and perhaps many of its followers would prefer it stayed that way.
Jonny Wilkinson, for one, would at least be guaranteed a bit of the peace and quiet he craves.
Don Riddell is away. World Sport airs on CNN International at 0930 GMT, 1230 GMT, 1430 GMT, and 2130 GMT daily (also 0030 GMT at weekends and daily in Asia.)
