No Lions tour for Johnson - Murphy
Sunday, 19 September 2004 12:06Ireland and Leicester back Geordan Murphy revealed that his clubmate Martin Johnson will not come out of international retirement to tour with the British and Irish Lions next summer.
Former England manager Clive Woodward will be in charge of the team to travel to New Zealand and speculation has been rife that he will try and persuade his former England captain to join him.
However, in an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Murphy said: "I've spoken to Martin about it and he's said definitely he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't play for the Lions even if selected."
"He said he wasn't putting himself out this year, he wasn't playing international rugby, so he wasn't playing for the Lions."
Murphy also revealed that Neil Back is unlikely to return to the Lions fold either and he said: "I wouldn't be too sure about Neil, either. I think they're just going to wind down in their last season."
Filed by Rob Wright
