No contest

The England flyhalf was a runaway winner of rugby's most prestigious prize as the newly crowned world champions swept the major awards at the IRB's annual presentation dinner.

England were named as the team of the year while Clive Woodward won the coach of the year award but Wilkinson was still the name on everyone's lips.

"It's been a good year, definitely one to remember," Wilkinson told the audience.

"I've been through some tense times...part of the journey was completed last night but there's more games to come."

Wilkinson, whose 100th-minute drop goal gave England a dramatic 20-17 win over the Wallabies in Saturday's World Cup final, was one of five players on a shortlist for the player of the year.

His English team mate and hooker Steve Thompson was also nominated along with France number eight Imanol Harinordoquy, New Zealand flanker Richie McCaw and Australia flanker Phil Waugh.

Wilkinson, 24, was a clear favourite to win the award even before his heroic effort in Saturday's final. The biggest star in the game, he was named last week as the International Players Association player of the year for the second season in a row.

Wilkinson was not at his absolute best earlier in the tournament but stayed true to his famous work ethic of practice, practice and more practice and it paid off.

He kicked 23 of England's 28 points in their quarter-final win over Wales but was still criticised for his general play.

However, the doubters were silenced when he scored all of his team's points in the 24-7 semi-final win over France then 15 in the final, including the last-minute drop goal, to finish the tournament as the leading points scorer with a tally of 113.

"I gave myself the day off," Wilkinson said. "I'm going to have tomorrow off as well because we're flying back to England, but that's it."