Martin Johnson (rugby union)
As of April 17, 2008
Martin Osborne Johnson CBE ( born March 9, 1970 in Solihull ) is an English former rugby union player and current coach of England. He was captain of the England team and the British and Irish Lions. He also played for the club Leicester Tigers. The greatest success of his career was the title at the World Championships in 2003.
Playing career
Johnson's career began in 1989 when he joined the Leicester Tigers. In 1993 he made his debut in the England team when he replaced the injured Wade Dooley. The plan, however, was that his first assignment to a different game should follow, because he could still collect little training experience with team colleagues. Unexpectedly, he played against France and showed an outstanding performance at the 16:15 victory for the British. In the same year he was also nominated for the British and Irish Lions tour and it came two appearances as a substitute. In 1995 he won the Grand Slam with England in the Six Nations.
With the retirement of Dean Richards Johnson was appointed captain of his club in 1997. This year Leicester won the Pilkington Cup and came into the finals of the Heineken Cup up. Although he was not captain of the national team, he was allowed to take on this role in the Lions tour to South Africa when they could surprise win two of three games. 1999 Johnson was appointed under coach Clive Woodward to the England captain Lawrence Dallaglio and thus inherited. Also on the next tour of the Lions, he was again captain and is the only player who was twice captain of the British and Irish Lions.
2003 was the most successful year in the career of Martin Johnson. First, England again won the Grand Slam in the Six Nations, including through a 42:6 against Ireland at Lansdowne Road Stadium. Usually, the respective President of Ireland is running, in this case Mary McAleese, on a red carpet and welcome the players from both sides. Martin Johnson insisted them to know nothing and let his teammates despite several indications of the organizer are on their side of the field, so that McAleese had to walk across the lawn to get to the English actors. From the Irish side as a result of this incident, there was much criticism of Johnson and his behavior that has been called ignorant.
The Grand Slam win in the spring followed by a successful tour to New Zealand and Australia, in which the British could provide for a surprise or two. This included, among other things, that during a game against the All Blacks two players sitting in the penalty box and was missing in the crowd. Despite this significant outnumbered succeeded to the English crowd, led by Martin Johnson to keep it. The highlight of the year was followed, however, at the World Championships when England could win the title. In addition to Jonny Wilkinson, who scored the decisive jump kick, was also repeatedly called Martin Johnson as an important pillar of the team.
In January 2004, he announced the end of his national team career known, but played until 2005 for his hometown club from Leicester. The Tigers won with Johnson as captain four times the Zurich Premiership and the Heineken Cup twice. In 2004 he was appointed CBE. His last game was followed on June 4, 2005 at Twickenham Stadium, as a selected one of his team met with a team of Jonah Lomu. This was also Lomus comeback, who previously had undergone a kidney transplant and had retired from active rugby.
Coaching career
In November 2006 there was the first time rumors that Johnson would take over as coach for the England team. Andy Robinson resigned from office at this time, however, the English FA opted for Brian Ashton as his successor. After streaky performance under Ashton, he was released on April 16. As the successor to certain Martin Johnson. He has a contract until the end of 2011. The first tournament under his direction were the Six Nations 2009, in which England was second.