Warburton’s Lions Legends: Martin Johnson
Rugby Union Weekly
BBC
4.6 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sam Warburton and Martin Johnson are the only players to captain the British & Irish Lions on back-to-back tours. So for this episode they sit down together to discuss their incredible achievement. They talk leadership, feeling under qualified, handling pressure and the art of a good team talk. Martin also relives the famous series win over South Africa in 1997. You’ll hear about training in the dark, getting stitches during a match and Jeremy Guscott’s winning drop goal. He also recalls his tour to Australia in 2001 and where it all went wrong. He shares his biggest regret, the issues with Graham Henry’s tactics and why he could have done more as captain.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Five Lives, Rugby Union Weekly. |
| 0:09.7 | Hello, Rugby Union Weekly. Friday, we're back with more Lions content for you. |
| 0:14.0 | Yesterday's episode all about Owen Farrell's call up to the Lions squad. |
| 0:17.6 | So get that, if you haven't already with Danny and Tom English. |
| 0:20.4 | Tomorrow, we're on the whistle with Ashi after Waratars against the Lions. But today, we're going down Memory Lane with the great Martin Johnson, one of our icons in the Lions' top tens. Another icon, Sam Warburton, sat down with Johnson for our Lions' Legends series to relive the epic tours of 97 and 01. |
| 0:38.6 | This is great stuff. Enjoy. |
| 0:40.1 | Warburton's Lions Legends. |
| 0:42.3 | Out to Jeremy Gasker. He drops for goal. It's over. |
| 0:46.8 | The Lions leap in the air. They've done it. |
| 0:49.4 | Here goes O'Connell. He's close. And he's got the score as well. |
| 0:53.1 | And Gavin Hastings, the hero of the whole |
| 0:55.8 | tour of the talisman. JJ Williams, where's he come from? Williams, a yard to go, and he scored. |
| 1:02.1 | Martin Johnson leads on the British and Irish Lions. If I could be anywhere in my international |
| 1:07.7 | career, I would be that 97 Lions tour. And the referee blows the whistle and the British Lions have won the series. |
| 1:16.0 | I still believe it's the best representation you can have. |
| 1:19.9 | Edwards looks for the long drop at goal. |
| 1:22.1 | He struck it beautifully and it sails through. |
| 1:27.3 | I was lucky enough to Captain the Lions on two occasions in 2013 and in 2017 and |
| 1:33.3 | the only other man to have that honour of leading the Lions on back-to-back tours is Martin Johnson. |
| 1:38.3 | We're going to relive that epic tour of South Africa in 97 and hear all about the series in Australia |
| 1:43.3 | four years later |
... |
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