Sam Johnson (born 19 June 1993) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who plays for

Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of oc, Briva la Galharda) is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the agglomeration was 75 ...

in France. A

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, Johnson represented

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at international level, although born and raised in Australia. He previously played for

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

and is a centurion for the club.

Rugby union career

Amateur career

Johnson first made a name for himself at schoolboy level, representing Queensland Schoolboys and Australia Schoolboys A after winning the

Associated Independent Colleges The Associated Independent Colleges, or AIC, is a group of independent secondary schools in south-east Queensland, Australia. With the exception of St Peters Lutheran College, AIC schools are all-boys schools (St Peter's secondary girls compete i ...

(AIC) competition with St Edmund's College in 2011. His first rugby union club was

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. He was then to switch codes to Rugby League. On moving to Scotland, he played for Stirling County when not in use by

. Johnson was drafted to

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

for the 2017-18 season. Johnson has been drafted to

Glasgow Hawks Glasgow Hawks is an amateur rugby union team in Glasgow, Scotland. They were Premiership Division One champions for three consecutive seasons from 2003–04 to 2005–06. History In Paris on 27 August 1995 a meeting of the International Rugby ...

in the

for the 2018-19 season.

Professional career

Johnson returned to rugby union for the 2013–14 season, when he joined the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

wider training squad, and returned to his former club GPS. Johnson impressed the Queensland Reds coaching staff in 2014 as a regular in the midfield for Reds A and GPS, which led to him making his Queensland Reds debut off the bench against the Western Force in Perth. Johnson then went on to play five matches for Queensland Country in Australia's

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

in the season 2014–15. Johnson made two

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

appearances for the Reds in total and was named on the bench a further three times. On 28 April 2015, it was announced that Johnson would be joining the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

champions Glasgow Warriors in an initial contract to May 2017. Johnson became Warrior No. 258 on his competitive debut against

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

on 1 November 2015. He won Glasgow Warriors Players' Player of the Season, together with Ruaridh Jackson in 2017-18, and was Glasgow's Test Player of the Season in 2018-19. He won Glasgow's try of the season also in the 2018-19 season in Glasgow's crushing of Leinster, away from home at the RDS Arena, by scoring the first Glasgow try in a 39-24 win. He won Player of the Match in October 2021 in a victory over the Sharks at Scotstoun Stadium. He captained Glasgow in their match against Benetton in November 2021. He was Glasgow's Player of the Month for February 2023. He was released by Glasgow at the end of the 2022-23 season. He had amassed 104 caps for the Warriors, starting 95 of those matches. He scored 10 tries for the club. In the summer of 2023, it was announced that he had signed for

International career

In October 2018, after qualifying to play for

on residency grounds, he was called up to the senior squad for the Autumn Internationals. He was then named in the squad for the

2019 Six Nations The 2019 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 20th Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland ...

tournament and started in the opening game, a 33–20 win against Italy, to claim his first cap. He scored his first international try in the 13-22 loss to Ireland the next week.

Rugby league career

Johnson played Rugby League for the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

under-20s after school. His favoured position in rugby league was as a forward in the back row but he was often played at as a back at centre instead and was tagged a utility player. He sometimes played for the Gold Coast Titans' feeder club

Tweed Heads Seagulls The Tweed Heads Seagulls, often referred to simply as Tweed or Seagulls or Tweed Seagulls, is a rugby league club based in Tweed Heads, New South Wales. It is one of only two non-Queensland teams to play in the Queensland Cup, along with the ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

at this time.

References

External links

Warriors sign JohnsonWarriors sign Sam Johnson & Greg Peterson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Sam 1993 births Living people Australian rugby union players Rugby union centres Queensland Reds players Queensland Country (NRC team) players Glasgow Warriors players Australian expatriate rugby union players in Scotland Stirling County RFC players Ayr RFC players Glasgow Hawks players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Rugby league players from Queensland Rugby union players from Queensland People from Central Queensland Barbarian F.C. players CA Brive players 2019 Rugby World Cup players People educated at St Edmund's College, Ipswich Scottish expatriate rugby union players in France