{"id":197036,"date":"2025-12-22T21:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/197036\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:56:06","slug":"martin-johnson-has-named-the-three-best-rugby-players-he-ever-played-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/197036\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Johnson has named the three best rugby players he ever played with"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Johnson doesn\u2019t hand out praise lightly. <\/p>\n<p>A World Cup\u2013winning captain, Lions legend and one of the most uncompromising locks the game has ever seen, Johnson built his career on brutal standards and relentless consistency. <\/p>\n<p>With 84 England caps, two Six Nations Grand Slams and the ultimate prize in 2003, he played alongside some of the greatest players of the professional era.<\/p>\n<p>So when Johnson was asked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/martin-johnsons-dream-team-all-time-best-xv-\ud83e\udd29\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pick his all-time dream team<\/a>, the fact he selected just three former teammates says everything. These are the players who, in his eyes, set themselves apart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel\/AbYd2l05pp1bM_Ix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Join RUCK\u2019s Instagram broadcast channel <\/a>and get the latest rugby news straight to your phone.<\/p>\n<p>Jonny Wilkinson<\/p>\n<p>Bio:<br \/>England\u2019s all-time great fly-half, Jonny Wilkinson redefined what it meant to be a No.10. <\/p>\n<p>Renowned for his obsessive preparation, defensive bravery and ice-cold nerve, Wilkinson earned 91 England caps, won the 2003 Rugby World Cup and remains one of the most influential figures the sport has produced.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson said:<br \/>\u201cJonny is special, not just for his kicking. I remember in the 2003 Grand Slam decider in Dublin, Ireland attacked down the right and Jonny was there to stop them; then they switched quickly to the left and Jonny was there to stop them too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Johnson, it wasn\u2019t just the drop goals and penalties \u2014 it was Wilkinson\u2019s total commitment, especially in defence, that elevated him above everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Johnson doesn\u2019t hand out praise lightly. A World Cup\u2013winning captain, Lions legend and one of the most&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-197036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}