England’s 2003 World Cup winning captain opens up about working a ‘normal’ job, the losses that haunt him and who he considers his greatest teammate
My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. This week we speak to former England rugby captain Martin Johnson about the 2003 World Cup, his biggest career regrets and what it was like to face Jonah Lomu.
I don’t think I ever thought I’d made it
It was probably a healthy paranoia. When I was starting out, I had a bit of an underdog mentality.
I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be. I was trying to knock players off their perch. But as I got older, I realised younger players were coming after me.
Johnson lifts the trophy after England beat Australia in the 2003 World Cup final (Photo: Getty)
So I was never comfortable in that sense. Maybe towards the end of my career, but then I had the responsibility of being captain and the added pressure that comes with that. If you think you’ve made it, you’re probably doing something wrong.
There are worse jobs than being a professional rugby player
It was still an amateur game when I started playing. I’ve done normal jobs where I’ve worked in factories and bits like that, just to get a solid job and earn some money.
So I’ve worked in the real, supposed “real” world. And if you worked with me at the time, don’t write in and deny that I existed!
I once heard Arsene Wenger speak at a conference, which was pretty rubbish otherwise
And he was the first person I thought spoke any sense. He was talking about motivating players, and he said, “Well, I need guys who want to be winners. The ones who are successful, they are never happy.”
And people looked at him weirdly but I thought, yes, they always talk about what they didn’t do well. I was very, very lucky, because I did virtually everything you ever dream of doing, but it’s the losses that haunt you the most.
British & Irish Lions 2001, we should have won that series. Against Wales in 1999, we should have won the Grand Slam. We were winning eight or nine games a year. And that’s the only game you remember, the one you lost. It felt like the end times. It rips your heart out.
‘Jason Robinson had huge natural ability – but he worked at it,’ says Johnson (Photo: Getty)
I was incredibly lucky to play with who I played with
That’s the great thing about rugby, it’s a team sport. I don’t know if there’s a better team sport.
But if I had to pick one, it would have to be Jason Robinson (and not just because he’s in the room!) “Robbo” had huge natural ability, but he worked at it. I thought he was more conscientious than a lot of the union lads because they took things for granted.
He obviously could beat people but he had to do all these other things he’d not done before. So he worked at his craft. He was really, really conscientious with it.
In terms of who I played against, Jonah Lomu was something else
I don’t think there’ll be anyone like him. He could change a game in the blink of an eye, but those types of players don’t come around very often.
He was a freak athlete. He was quite tall, 6ft 4ish, and you think I was a big boy. His hamstrings and quads were just massive. When he was in his shorts, he looked like a different species.
There’s some big guys about, but they can’t run 80 yards. He could run 80 yards full tilt in his pomp. Good luck stopping that.
It was a strange feeling to win the World Cup
Because we knew that anything other than winning it was going to be a huge disappointment. Getting to the final wasn’t enough.
The pressure was off the charts. If I hadn’t been playing in the final, I wouldn’t have been able to watch. It would have made me physically sick. Even in the final, we made it very difficult for ourselves.
So then you have the high at the end, and how do you deal with that? Yeah it was brilliant, it was the honour of my life to do it, but it was a weird mix of all those things. I say to people all the time, if you’re in a team that’s good enough to win something, you’ve got to go and win it, because the regret will stay with you for the rest of your life if you don’t.
I will never be a pushy parent
My boy is going through the system at Leicester Tigers. It’s a different world than the one I went through, but he enjoys it.
Of course I talk to him occasionally about things, but I’m a firm believer that you’ve also got to find your own way in life. There’s nothing like self-reflection. You have to work it out for yourself.
He’s doing what he wants to do, and that’s the main thing. As a parent you do what you think is right at the time. So long as he’s enjoying himself, that’s what’s important to me.
As part of its new “Fans Reunited” campaign, Greene King is giving customers the opportunity to reconnect with pals by watching a Six Nations match at one of their pubs
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