Jonny Wilkinson: How Perfection Nearly Broke Me

I want to be all I can be. And if I'm going to do that, I've got to stop looking at rugby. It's a bit like winning the World Cup. The ecstasy of that moment, incredible. But within three or four seconds, it's on the decline.

There's no lasting nature to it. That is the voice of Johnny Wilkinson, the iconic hero whose drop goal won England the 2003 Rugby World Cup. That was possibly the most picture perfect moment in English rugby history, the perfect kick delivered under the ultimate pressure. But what if I told you though that the man who delivered that perfection was drowning in his own mind? That before games he was phoning his family trying to find reasons not to play, that after two World Cup finals he could barely leave his hotel room, that he suffered fourteen injuries in a row,

And he was wrestling with mental health issues throughout his obsession with being perfect. This is genuinely one of the most profound conversations that we've ever had on high performance. It's not about rugby, it's about life, and it's about the danger of self importance. Johnny talks about the performance paradox, that at 18 he was a walking embodiment of opportunity and passion, but by the age of 28, he was talking only about pressure and expectation, he was judging everyone around him, he was rigid with fear. We explored the moment when he realised his passion had been replaced by pressure.

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