At just 25, Johnny is one of Saints’ longest serving current players having made his debut eight years ago. And it looks like he may reach that 10th season having signed a new two-year contract at the end of 2005/06.
Johnny has been a constant feature of the Saints teamsheet for the last couple of seasons, either as cover for Mark Robinson or indeed in the starting No 9 shirt, and before Mark, he was understudy to World Cup winner Matt Dawson. However, he was called upon to cover the wing against Bristol in the European Challenge Cup last season, from where is scored a blistering try. Injuries meant he was also called up to start on the wing against Viadana the following weekend, but bad weather meant the game was called off and Johnny was one of the most disappointed to have missed out on a chance to show his pace.
Johnny made his debut for the club in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Cup in the 1997/98 season when he was just 17. He also took up the co-captaincy role of the Wanderers in the 2003/04 season after previously being the U21s skipper.
The 2006/07 Saints injury crisis meant that Johnny took to the field on the wing as well as scrum-half, as well as take the kicking responsibilities in a couple of matches, notably the Heineken Cup Pool 6 away game in Biarritz.
2007/08 began with Johnny being the incumbent scrum-half. However he edged his appearance tally through the 90s painfully slowly thanks to an attack of so-called 'turf toe'. Nevertheless he reached the legendary 100 in the home derby match against Bedford on January 5th, 2008.
