British and Irish Lions great Martin Johnson urged Andy Farrell’s side to nail the basics in order to seal the series win as he addressed the side for Saturday’s second Test against Australia in Melbourne.
Johnson became the first man to captain the Lions on consecutive tours when he skippered the side in Australia in 2001, four years after leading the legendary 1997 tour of South Africa.
As the current crop attempt to win a series for just the second time this century, Johnson spoke to the squad on Thursday night and presented the matchday 23 with their Test jerseys.
“What a privilege to have him come in,” Lions assistant coach John Fogarty said on Friday.
“He had a really nice presence to him. He spoke about the small margins in the biggest games and he talked about the fundamentals – doing those things properly. It is going to be the smallest of margins.
“For this group and for him as a player, mentality wasn’t an issue. It was compounding errors, these are the things you need to make sure you are on top of during the match.
“He handed some jerseys out, and it was a cool moment. In a tour of loads of cool moments.”
