ball from a tap penalty 5 meters out, as Leicester won 23–16. He made his test debut against in the opening game of the 1993 Five Nations Championship on 16 January 1993. He was due to play in an England 'A' game when he was unexpectedly summoned to Twickenham to replace the injured Wade Dooley. With only a 20-minute line-out session with his new teammates before the game, Johnson was thrown into the deep end. An early clash of heads with French prop Laurent Seigne left Johnson concussed, but he continued to play as England won 16–15. Johnson did not feature again for England in the Five Nations that season but was called up for an uncapped tour to Canada. After featuring in England's loss to Canada he was called up, again as a replacement for Dooley, for the 1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand. Dooley had returned to England for his father's funeral and was blocked from returning to the tour by the Lions' own committee. Johnson played in the final two tests against New Zealand. 1993-95: First League title, Grand Slam and Rugby World Cup In 1993–94 season Johnson again was an ever-present in Tigers run to the cup final but this time Leicester fell short to rivals Bath, losing 21–9. Leicester were also runners up in the league to Bath, Johnson played in 15 of Leicester's 18 matches. Johnson celebrated the first of his 5 league titles in 1995. That season the league was played in two main blocks with sporadic fixtures in between; the first 9 games were played on consecutive weekends from 10 September 1994 to 5 November 1994, two games were played in January 1995, one in February 1995 and one at the beginning of March 1995 before finishing with 5 games in 6 weeks from 25 March to 29 April. Johnson played in all 9 games in the first period as Tigers won 7, drew against Bath away, and lost to Bristol to leave them 2nd in the table. Against Orrell R.U.F.C. on 14 January 1995 Johnson captained Leicester for the first time, regular captain Dean Richards and vice captain John Wells being unavailable. Tigers won 29–19. He was ever-present in the England side that won the 1995 Grand Slam. Preparations for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which started in May, were deemed all important so Johnson, along with England colleague Rory