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LONDON - Teetotaller Jonny Wilkinson hit the booze to avoid the pain of England's World Cup final defeat to South Africa, he revealed today.
The Newcastle first five-eighths said he wanted to join in with his teammates as they unwound after a tournament that saw the defending champions defy the odds to make it to Sunday's final.
Newspapers pictured Wilkinson looking merry as he partied with the England squad and Princes William and Harry in Paris following the match in the French capital.
Underdogs England were beaten 15-6 at the Stade de France by South Africa, who had humiliated them with a 36-0 defeat in the tournament pool stages.
Wilkinson also said he would need some time to recover from the right ankle problem which plagued him thoughout the entire tournament.
"I broke the habit of pretty much a lifetime after the game on Saturday night (Sunday NZ time) and had a bit of a blow-out," he wrote in The Times newspaper.
"It was the first time in years and simply seemed the right time and the right thing to do.
He said a huge bond had formed in the national rugby squad over the past few weeks, which he did not want to break.
"After most games here, people have done different things in different groups, but after the final on Saturday, it seemed right to remain as a group, all as close and tight as we have become. I am proud to have been in this team and in this squad and I wanted to show that.
"It also helped to be together like that, to get back to the hotel and then go straight out again. Anything, I felt, rather than stop and ruminate on what had just gone before.
And he added: "There will be plenty of time, I know, when I'll be feeling the pain of having lost the World Cup final, but our Saturday night was more a case of putting that off. We actually managed to have a lot of fun, but I tell you, I certainly felt rank as a result of it.
Wilkinson paid tribute to the South Africans, but admitted that taking part in the trophy award ceremony after the final was bizarre.
"Being involved in the presentation ceremony, I feel, is important. It is important to respect and applaud the winners the way that Australia did for us.
"But it was a strange experience, standing and watching the South Africans and the presentation of the cup. I almost felt like a spectator, as though I wasn't there on the pitch at all.
"Still, it remains the case that we have had an incredible journey just to get this far. My mindset before the final was that if we lost, getting there would mean nothing.
"But I've gone beyond that already. We achieved so much so quickly; that, I hope, will be my abiding thought and not the pain of the final."
Wilkinson said the right ankle he turned in England's first World Cup training session at their base in Versailles, just outside Paris, had been troubling him throughout the tournament.
He said his rehabilitation period was sped up by three or four weeks to get him fit enough to play in England's third pool game, the 44-22 defeat of Samoa on September 22.
"When I get home, I am going to have to reassess the ankle and let it recover properly," Wilkinson wrote.
"Out here in France, I haven't been able to kick on the right foot at all. I didn't kick once on it in practice and I didn't use it once in any of the games except for three dropped goal attempts that all missed.
"Overall it is fair to say that it has limited my options here.
The problem was the cumulative impact on his ankle in recent weeks, he said. "And the surface of the Stade de France - which is soft on top and hard underneath - is not what you want with an ankle like mine.
"So it is back home for me now, recover properly and get myself into a position where I can start taking my rugby forward again. I need my ankle to clear first, and my head, too."
- AFP
