England rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson takes £500,000 hit on £1.5m mansion sale

about his ongoing rivalry with Owen Farrell.

The ex-Newcastle Falcons star originally purchased the countryside property for around £1.5 million — but when it eventually went on the market, it sold for just over £900,000.

The property, now worth well over its original value, became a vital part of Wilkinson’s recovery during the most difficult spell of his career.

“When I went through my injury period between 2004 and 2007, I just couldn’t stay fit and I was struggling," he admitted.

“It was then I decided to extend the property to include space for a gym and a swimming pool.

“It kind of saved my career. My whole life was about doing rehab and gym work to try and stay fit and get back into my job. It became a bit of a retreat almost.

“I could do what I had to do, but still have all the peace and quiet that comes with the house.”

Despite the financial blow, it’s clear the property played a crucial role in keeping Wilkinson’s legendary career alive.

He added: “The views go on forever. It’s that kind of thing that I’m going to miss. It’s that beautiful and that much of a privilege to live here.

“But at the same time, it’s one of the these things when suddenly your life takes shape in front of you and you have to move on. “The house is very special to me as it’s where I spent the mainstay of my rugby career.

The house dates from the late 1800s and has been updated throughout.

Former England lock Attwood has opened up on the latest RugbyPass Offload

The Bath lock won the last of his 24 caps for England back in 2016, which could have a lot to do with his relationship with the current England captain.

He revealed: "On the pitch, I struggle a lot with Owen Farrell. We just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,

“He hates me with a passion. Despite my earthy roots, he thinks I am a posh c***. He hates that. I bagged rugby league once jovially. I was saying it to take the piss kind of thing, ‘a bloody sport for the peasants’. He f**kin’ hated it."

"He had a bit of a shout at me and went off to the toilet and I followed him.

“We all had a drink or two after the game but we didn’t need to get carried away with this. I was in the urinal behind the door and he was three or four down and as I got in his dad walked in as well, he was coaching at the time. He was, ‘I don’t want to fuckin’ hear it’ or something like that and as he walked out he went to open the door and slam it into the back of me. There was like a stop on the floor so it hit the stop and almost clocked him back…

“We never really addressed it after that. That was where it started and it was like a drunken little bit of argy that went too far. He is an incredibly competitive athlete and he is also very f**kin’ good, he has got high standards. He is a very competitive athlete and in order to be that good, you have to flirt on the wrong side of competitive.

“So whenever we play each other there is always some element in the game where one of us is running at the other one or we are trying to bang each other. There always seems to be an element of that to it. I am sure he is like, I don’t even know that Dave is playing.”

The Scotland back-rower was the instigator in some tunnel argy-bargy when the players returned to the changing rooms after the warm-up back in 2018 with Farrell at the centre.

Footage of the incident shows all hell breaking loose when Farrell barged his way past a number of Scotland players to confront Wilson, who had been attempting to get inside the head of George Ford.

Wilson later revealed he was banned from Twickenham following the incident.

“I remember that game, I was actually injured and after tunnel-gate, after everything that happened in the tunnel against England, I’d lined up a corporate gig at Twickenham,” he recalled to Rugby Pass in November.

“Had it all lined up, a little bit of cash, all excited, only to get a message back saying the RFU have banned you from Twickenham Stadium after everything that happened the year before.

The pair have what we can only describe as a love-hate relationship. As legendary as the 'best mates' videos were during the 2016 tour of Australia, Farrell certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it.