| The England fly half overtook clubmate and fellow World Cup winner Matthew Burke’s record of 878 points by virtue of his man-of-the-match comeback performance at Twickenham.
While Wilkinson’s England tally stands at 844 points, 34 behind Burke’s haul for Australia, the 47 points Wilkinson has struck for the British and Irish Lions sees him surpass his Kingston Park comrade.
Burke, who kicked Australia to the 1999 Rugby World Cup, said: “I must admit I wasn’t aware of the record, but well done to Jonny all the same on what was a great return for England.
“He still has plenty of points left in him for both club and country, and we’re just looking forward to seeing him back in a Falcons shirt when he returns from international duty.”
It is not just on the Test stage that Wilkinson leads the scoring charts, having notched 1,411 points in his 129 competitive matches for the Falcons, an average of 10.9 per game.
Wilkinson and Burke, however, cannot be separated when it comes to the Newcastle try-scoring stakes, having touched down 23 times each in Falcons colours.
Burke claims the greater strike rate, taking only 68 games to reach the mark compared to Wilkinson’s 129, but Wilkinson still remains the leading scorer in Premiership history, having struck 1,334 points in his 121 league games.
It is neither Wilkinson nor Burke, however, who has racked up the most points for the Falcons so far this season, with Toby Flood having scored 120 in his 18 outings.
While Burke may have lost his Falcons bragging rights to Wilkinson, the Aussie legend will not be down in the dumps for long, with the news that he has today received his British residency.
His status as a British resident means he now no longer counts as an ‘overseas’ player, and can feature in the same Newcastle team as All Black prop Joe McDonnell.
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