Martyn Williams - Rugby Rivals: My Top 10 Players

To my mind, the truly great players arent just the ones who can do the job out on the pitch. They are also people who have an influence on others off the field, and Martin Johnson certainly falls into that category.

Johnno did everything in the game, including the ultimate honour of leading England to World Cup glory in 2003, and of course hes gone on to lead his country as team manager since hanging up his boots.

Hes probably the greatest captain of the professional era, having also skippered the British and Irish Lions on two tours.

I was lucky enough to go on the second of those trips to Australia in 2001 and to play under him.

Up until then, Id only ever played against him and been on the end of few hammerings from his England team.

Because of their size, you think people like him are larger-than-life, intimidating figures.

And that image was reinforced for me after watching the behind-the-scenes Living with Lions video of the 1997 tour of South Africa, when he led the Lions to a memorable series win. He was such an imposing presence on that video. I always remember the scene when he was having a nasty eye injury stitched up in the dressing room, and he just couldnt wait to get back out on the pitch.

So it was a daunting prospect to be a teammate of this massive figure.

But when I got to know him in the Lions team on the 2001 trip Down Under, I found he was a down-to-earth bloke and he really made me feel at ease.

We both love American Football, so that was an interest we had in common, and I really enjoyed his company.

But when it came to the business of rugby, he was very focused. What stood out for me on that 2001 tour were the standards he set, day-in, day-out, in training.

The English players who had known him for a while said his training sessions were always like that.

If he was carrying a bump he would still be out there. He would never sit back and think: Im the England captain and I can rest on my laurels.

He always set an example. And he would never ask people to do something he wasnt prepared to do himself. He backed his words with his actions and led by example. No one wanted to let him down. You couldnt have anything but total respect for the bloke.

He is very knowledgeable about the game of rugby as well. You have this picture of second row forwards as being dour, hard-nosed, heads-down characters, but Johnnos a very intelligent man.

He knows what he wants, hes very focused and he knows the game inside out.

Even back then, he would talk about players in Wales, and surprise you by knowing who they were.

He was also very modest. One of his favourite sayings was: A great team makes a great captain, but a great captain cant make a great team.

A lot of people have asked me what he was like in the dressing room, because I think they expect him to have come out with Churchillian speeches before games.

I expected that myself, to be honest. But he didnt actually say much on that 2001 tour. We did have big characters out there, like Keith Wood, the Irish hooker who was an emotional guy and would do a lot of talking.

But, although Johnno didnt say much, when he did speak, you knew it would be important. People would sit back and take note.

He would be short, but to the point.

He didnt show his emotions as much as others might, but he was very precise and forceful. Some captains say too little, some too much. He got the balance just right. I think thats an art

When you think of the characters and size of personalities he had to captain during his career people like Wood, Lawrence Dallaglio, Austin Healey, Matt Dawson you can imagine the skill needed to control them. But he was always the dominant figure.

Some players just have that presence and he was one of them.

He certainly had a presence out on the field itself. I think he was one of the hardest players Ive ever played against.

For me, hardness isnt about stamping on somebody on the floor. Thats not hard. Hard, to me, is somebody who, week-in, week-out, puts his body on the line and takes as much as he gives. And Johnno did that throughout his career.