This is the third article in our series looking at players from the northern hemisphere who may be lesser known on the international stage. Previously we looked at two wingers, Harry Robinson and Tim Visser, who at that time had yet to start an official test for their country.
We now feature a forward, England flanker Tom Johnson. The other difference is that by now Johnson has actually played two tests for England, against South Africa.
Tom Johnson, at the age of 29 has been around the game for quite a while, although he had been plying his trade at lower domestic levels for much of his career.
For this reason this was a name on the English squad sheet for the summer tour to South Africa that was relatively unknown to the author.
Tom Johnson looks to be a hard working flanker who is never far from the action. He is used by his club Exeter to carry the ball up strongly and often gets passed the ball after running cleverly into space at full pace. He also attends a lot of rucks securing good ball quite often.
His tackling is top notch and from some of the tackles viewed he certainly seems to like lining up his opponent before putting in bone jarring tackles. In addition to all of this he is also a fairly useful lineout option, in spite of his relative lack of height.
Much of the rest of the information has been obtained from The RFU.
Personal stats
. Age – 29
. Date and place of birth – 16th July 1982, Dusseldorf Germany
. Height – 1.88m
. Weight – 104kg
. Number of appearances for country – 2*
. Current club – Exeter Chiefs
* official test caps
At club level Tom Johnson has played for English clubs Chinnor, Reading, Coventry and Exeter Chiefs.
His break-through on the rugby scene seems to have started in the lower leagues at Reading back in the 2004/05 season when he played in all 28 of their National Three South and Cup matches. During this season he played most of his games as eighthman and scored 18 tries. He managed to score four tries in a game twice, this against Dings Crusaders and Lydney.
Johnson moved on to play for Coventry in the 2005/06 season. During his time at Coventry he scored an 80-metre try against Otley, which was an indication of how nimble his footwork was and highlighted his ability to finish moves from long range.
Johnson’s current club, Exeter Chiefs, gained promotion to the Premiership in England at the end of the 2009 season. He signed a two year contract with Exeter in January 2011.
Johnson has played a major part in Exeter’s relative success during a time that has seen the club steadily progress. Exeter ended the 2010/2011 season in 8th place in the Aviva Premiership and also played in the Amlin Challenge Cup (European’s second tier club competition) and the LV Cup (an Anglo-Welsh competition between English clubs and Welsh regional sides).
They went 3 places better in 2011/2012 Premiership season, ending in fifth place. This has gained them entry into the 2012/2013 Heineken Cup competition where they are going to be in a tough group, alongside Leinster, Clermont Auvergne and the Scarlets.
Exter also showed good form in the 2011/2012 Amlin Challenge Cup, winning 5 out of their 6 group stage matches, scoring 22 tries in the process and only conceding 4. Unfotunately for them they then went on to be drawn against strong French side Stade Francais for the quarter final in Paris. They narrowly lost this game with the final score of 22-17 to Stade Francais. Former Stormers winger Sireli Naqelevuki scored Exeter’s only try.
Tom Johnson played in all 44 matches of Exeter Chiefs’ first two seasons in the Premiership, 2010/11 and 2011/12. During this time he scored eight tries for the club. He agreed a two-year contract with the Chiefs in January 2011, helped them to fifth place in the past season and has also scored eight tries.
Johnson was selected for England and played his first game for them against the Barbarians at Twickenham in May 2011, scoring a try in this game.
He followed this match with a debut for England Saxons against the USA a few days later in the Churchill Cup; again Tom Johnson scored a try.
He went on to become a stand out player for England Saxons through the rest of that year’s Churchill Cup. Johnson then featured in the following game against Tonga as well as in the final against Canada. The victory in the final was quite a comprehensive one, with a score of 37-6.
Continuing his rise to the top of the rugby tree, Johnson was selected as part of the squad for England’s 2012 summer tour of South Africa. He made his full debut for England in the first test match against the Springboks in Durban on Saturday 9th June and played well enough to be retained for the second test in Johannesburg on Saturday 16th June.
Many of you who will have watched the last two test matches between South Africa and England will have a fairly good idea on how the step up to test match rugby has gone for Tom Johnson.
It would seem that he has taken his chances well and been quite consistent in both test matches. Should this form continues the 3rd test match on Saturday he may well be pushing Alex Corbisiero or Chris Robshaw as a candidate for one of England’s best forwards of the tour, having the benefit of more game time than the other two.
A few comments on his performance and extracts of ratings of the player from various sources follow. On the whole they seem to rate Johnson fairly positively.
First test
“I have to make a special mention for …Tom Johnson; I thought … work rate was phenomenal.” – Graham Rowntree (England forwards coach)
“Wonderful first half an hour when he appeared unstoppable; huge tackles and the odd break making him catch the eye. But faded away much like Marler as the game went on, sucked in to making numerous tackles. Positive though. 6” -rugbyblog
“Effective for the first half hour but then the energy seemed to go from his legs. 6” -telegraph
Second test
“Like the rest, struggled when the heat was on but came through it well. 6” – telegraph
“One of the hardest workers in the England pack and may have missed a tackle, but made more than most. Add to that some impressive carries in the second half and he was probably the visitors’ best forward. 7/10” –rugby365
“Niggly, brute of a flanker who hunted every high ball on offer. His consistency was remarkable considering this was his 2nd cap. England need a character like Joe Worsley and he came close. 7” –therugbyblog
It will be interesting to hear back what the general impression is of Tom Johnson’s contribution in an England jersey thus far on the tour.
Tom Johnson – England player
Charging down kick by Francois Hougaard
Taking line out ball