Behind the sometimes dour grimace on the face of a towering neanderthal that is Martin Johnson is a funny, sharp-witted man. True, the public does not get to see this too often, but if you have been privileged enough to have known and worked with the man as I have for many years, you do see a different side to a person and, mostly, it is the true side. I was in the company of the current England rugby manager the other day and, whilst we were discussing our working relationship over the years, I reminded him that I was with him when he led the England players' strike (I sat in his hotel room having been smuggled in to hear his exclusive side of the story), I was with him when he won the World Cup (I wrote his column in The Mail on Sunday moments after he lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy in Sydney), and that I was with him when he announced his retirement (in an exclusive interview in the same newspaper). Johnson thought about this for a second and replied: "Were you there at the births of my children, as well?"
