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Wilkinson surpassed New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter at the top of the individual points table when he landed a 46m penalty with his very first kick after coming on to replace Toby Flood.
The Toulon player's effort just squeezed over to give England a vital eight-point lead heading into the final quarter, taking Wilkinson's personal tally to 1 190 points, two ahead of Carter.
"It was a good way to enter," said Wilkinson after England's 17-9 win at Twickenham "When you come on you are searching for the feel of the game.
"It is very difficult to execute things when you haven’t got a feel of what is going on so you want anything that gets you involved.
"With a kick like that, you are then going back to receive the kick-off. It makes you feel like you are starting afresh."
Wilkinson, who famously scored the drop goal that won the 2003 World Cup for England, said he had only recently become aware that Carter had edged in front of him in the all-time points list.
"It is maybe the first time in my career I have been aware of the situation - and that was only because someone told me in the week," Wilkinson said.
"They told me Carter had taken the record and I said ’brilliant, awesome for him’. And then someone said: ’Actually, you are quite close to taking it back’.
"I did wonder if I would get a penalty today if I came on - and it came up first thing.
"The record doesn’t mean that much to me, it is just nice to get straight into the game."
Leading point-scorers in test rugby (active-x):
1 190 - Jonny Wilkinson (England/Lions)-x
1 188 - Dan Carter (New Zealand)-x
1 090 - Neil Jenkins (Wales/Lions)
1 010 - Diego Dominguez (Italy, Argentina)
987 - Ronan O'Gara (Ireland)-x
967 - Andrew Mehrtens (New Zealand)
934 - Stephen Jones (Wales/Lions)-x
911 - Michael Lynagh (Australia)
893 - Percy Montgomery (South Africa)
878 - Matthew Burke (Australia)
752 - Chris Paterson (Scotland)-x
733 - Gavin Hastings (Scotland/Lions)
