Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson
Martin Johnson, from the cover of his autobiography
Full name	Martin Osborne Johnson
Date of birth	March 9 1970 (1970-03-09) (age 38)
Place of birth	Solihull, West Midlands
Height	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)
Weight	119 kg (260 lb/18.7 st)
Nickname	Jonno
Rugby union career
Position	Lock
Clubs		Caps	(points)
1989-2005	Leicester Tigers	307
correct as of 12 December 2007.
National team(s)
1993-2003 1993,1997,2001	England British and Irish Lions	84 8	(10) (0)
correct as of 12 December 2007.

Martin Osborne Johnson CBE (born 9 March 1970) is a former rugby union footballer who represented and captained England and Leicester. He was known for his strong leadership and "no-nonsense" approach to the game. Regarded as one of the greatest locks to have ever played, Johnson led the England side to a Grand Slam and World Cup victory in 2003. He toured three times with the British Lions, becoming the only man to have captained them on two separate tours. He also led his club Leicester Tigers to back-to back Heineken Cup victories and won the league six times.

Biography

Johnson was born in Solihull in the West Midlands, the second of three brothers — his younger brother Will plays back row forward. At the age of seven, his family moved to Market Harborough, Leicestershire, where Martin attended Little Bowden Primary School, Welland Park School and Robert Smyth School, where his father still works as a caretaker. Johnson briefly played American football for the Leicester Panthers as a tight end or defensive end. In 1989 he was approached by former All Black Colin Meads to try out for the King Country side in New Zealand. Johnson's trial run was successful and he played two seasons for King Country. In 1990 he was even selected for the New Zealand under-21 side which went on a tour of Australia playing a side that included another of the all-time great lock forwards, John Eales. However, in late 1990, Johnson returned to England because his New Zealand wife Kay wanted to live in the UK. He played for Leicester Tigers from 1989 to 2005. Johnson made his test debut against France in January 1993 under dramatic circumstances. He was due to play in another game when he was unexpectedly summoned to Twickenham to replace the injured Wade Dooley. With barely any proper preparation (he had a last-minute line-out session with his new teammates before the game), Johnson was thrown into the deep end. An early clash of heads with French prop Laurent Seigne momentarily left Johnson dazed, but he recovered and went on to play superbly as England won 16–15. then went on to become part of the side that won the 1995 Grand Slam. He was also called up to the 1993 Lions tour as a replacement, playing twice. In 1997 with the retirement of Dean Richards, Johnson was made club captain but only captained the side when Richards was not playing. In 1997 Leicester won the Pilkington Cup and reached the final of the Heineken Cup. Despite not having international captaincy experience, he was selected by Ian McGeechan as the captain of the 1997 Lions tour to South Africa. The Lions as underdogs won the series 2-1. Returning to domestic rugby, Lawrence Dallaglio was appointed England captain by new England coach Clive Woodward. However, Johnson took the captaincy in 1999 after Dallaglio was caught in a honey trap by the News of the World. Under Johnson's leadership England moved away from being a forward-dominated side, and towards the 15-man rugby that Woodward wanted them to play. Johnson was again asked to captain the Lions tour to Australia in 2001, becoming the only man to captain them twice. The tour was hugely successful financially; however, they lost 2-1 to a seasoned Australian side captained by John Eales and coached by Rod McQueen. In 2003 England won the Six Nations Grand Slam that had eluded them with a 42-6 victory over Ireland at Landsdowne Road. The match was not without controversy with England's perceived snub of the President of Ireland at the pre kick off presentation. After leading the England team onto the field at Landsdowne Road, Johnson refused to reposition the England team thus forcing the Irish President to walk onto the grass to greet both teams. Johnson maintains he was not at fault and had not received special pre-match instructions despite being asked three times to move. The Irish Rugby Football Union apologised to the Irish President on his behalf. The IRFU confirmed its president, Don Crowley, had written to President McAleese to apologise for the "embarrassing position" she was placed in "by the failure of the England team to follow established and communicated protocol" during the presentation of the teams. Officials also wrote to the Rugby Football Union to express "concern and unhappiness" that the situation had arisen. Johnson's behaviour was described as "pig ignorant" by Irish media personaility, Pat Kenny. The 2003 Grand Slam season was followed by a successful warm up tour to New Zealand and Australia. Among the highlights of a successful tour was the 6-man England scrum (with 2 back row forwards in the sin bin), which held off pressure from the All Blacks as Johnson famously told his comrades in the scrum to "get down and shove", when asked about what was going through his head in the scrum he replied "my spine". In England's 25-14 victory over Australia, Johnson also performed at a monumental level, leading the Australian captain, John Eales, to commend his display as 'among the best ever by a lock forward'. They took this into the 2003 World Cup, where they won crucial matches against South Africa, Wales and France, beating Australia in the final to win the cup with an extra time drop goal, with Johnson's captaincy and Wilkinson's playing displays widely acknowledged as the driving forces behind the English triumph. Johnson retired from international rugby in January 2004 but continued to play for Leicester until 2005. Under his captaincy (1997 to 2003) the Leicester Tigers won four Zurich Premiership titles and two Heineken Cups. He was awarded the CBE in the 2004 New Year honours and was second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards behind Jonny Wilkinson. Johnson's testimonial match and farewell to competitive rugby, held at Twickenham on 4 June 2005 was one of the biggest rugby events of the year. It was historic in another way; the match marked the return of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu after a recent kidney transplant. Johnson's XV defeated Lomu's 33–29. All proceeds from the match went to children's and cancer charities. In November 2006 it was rumoured the then England head rugby coach, Andy Robinson, was to be sacked and Johnson was one of many names speculated by the press as his replacement. The Rugby Football Union eventually selected Brian Ashton for the role. A fan of American football, Johnson is a supporter of the San Francisco 49ers and worked as a studio analyst for ITV at Super Bowl XLI on 4 February 2007. He played for the Leicester Panthers Youth and Senior teams before his rugby union days - and on 28 May 2007 he returned to play for his old team in the Matt Hampson Bowl^[1], a charity match against the Loughborough Aces college team, with the proceeds going to the Matt Hampson Trust. The Panthers ran out 20-3 winners.

External links

• Leicester Tigers profile
• Sporting Heroes
• Six of the best Martin Johnson performances
• Observer article on Martin Johnson's visit to the San Francisco 49ers
• Pictures of Martin Johnson and his team mates
• Fan page

Notes