The Martin Johnson interview: A leader of men with club, country and the Lions

He retired with winning records against every major rugby nation apart from New Zealand, and he beat the All Blacks as much as he lost to them.

MAN MOUNTAIN: Martin Johnson at the International Rugby Experience in Limerick. Pic: Diarmuid Greene

MARTIN Johnson emerges onto the sixth floor of the new International Rugby Experience on Limerick’s O’Connell Street, his head swivelling one way and then the other as he absorbs the 360-degree views of the city laid out beneath.

This is the end point of the region’s newest attraction, its floor-to-ceiling windows allowing light and life to flood in, and the eyes of England’s most successful captain have landed on the famous medieval brickwork on the banks of the Shannon.