By Iain Payten
“The win at Twickenham you saw exactly that, didn’t you?” Johnson said. “When they had a chance to score tries, some very, very smart handling and bang they’re scoring tries.
“So I’ve been constantly knocking back people’s expectations of a comfortable (Lions) victory in Australia, because Lions tours are tough. They are hard.”
Johnson said can see another decider unfolding in Sydney on August 2.
“I have picked 2-1,” Johnson said. “I was talking with [Wallabies great] Michael Lynagh the other day, about when you’re playing you’d take the ugliest Test series in history as long as you win it. But when you get a little bit older you, you’re sort of like ‘let’s have a great series for everyone’ you know?
“Something to remember and we can say ‘wow we were privileged to be there in ’25’.”
Is Pollock the new Healey?
Johnson laughs when you ask what the 2001 version of Martin Johnson would have made of flashy young English backrower Henry Pollock.
The 20-year-old was picked for the Lions after an eye-catching season for Northampton, where he became fodder for countless headlines and social media posts via athletic tries and showmanship. More flowed after Pollock’s impressive game against the Western Force, which featured a few try assists and a scuffle.
“It’s easy to be a grumpy old man isn’t it? He went to school fairly local to me here so my I’ve known about him coming through his school stuff, I’ve just been aware of him. No one has ever timed the Lions selection better than him,” Johnson said.
“I was doing an event on Saturday, and he became a big topic of discussion. [Former England forward] Ben Kay was there and he said ‘look he’s great, because he gets people talking about rugby’, which is very true.
“He seems to be polarising but I saw some of the things he did against the Western Force and there was some real savvy rugby there. There’s also going to be some mistakes and as he plays at the higher level, the intensity, he’s going to find out about that. But I’m sure he’s going to be able to adapt to it. It’s just how quick.”
Johnson said while it’s easy to judge someone from afar, the only thing that counted was whether he was earning the respect of the Lions squad. He compared Pollock to his provocative former Leicester, England and Lions teammate Austin Healey, who was always a target of fury for rival fans.
“There’s the perception of ‘oh he’s this and he’s that’,” Johnson said. “Most of it, he wasn’t really – he wouldn’t have lasted as long in the teams he played with if he was not a good guy to play with.
“You know that ACT midweek in ’01, when we could have got beaten, who dragged the team back?
He was one of the guys who dragged it back to win that game, and that matters.
“Henry Pollock, it’ll be interesting because there’s an expectation around him, that he might feel he has to live up to. But he’s a young guy on a Lions tour, and there’s plenty of experience around him.”