Tony Johnson (born 29 August 1959) is a New Zealand rugby commentator and presenter for SKY Television. Johnson hails from Picton and played for the

Queen Charlotte College Picton ( mi, Waitohi) is a town in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand's South Island. The town is located near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, north of Blenheim and west of Wellington. Waikawa lies just north-east o ...

1st XV as a lock and loose forward before playing club senior reserves. He also played premier cricket, basketball, golf and participated in swimming. He suffers from peripheral neuropathy after first noticing a sore hip when he was in his late teens. That developed to weakness in his left leg and arm in his early 20s. He walks with a profound limp. Johnson was made to give up sport but was always captivated by radio. He started his broadcasting career in Blenheim in 1978 before stints in Tokoroa, Wellington and Dunedin, where he started his sports commentary. After this, he was a reporter for Radio New Zealand in Europe from 1988 and moved back to New Zealand in 1992 to work for

Newstalk ZB Newstalk ZB is a nationwide New Zealand talk radio, talk-radio network operated by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, NZME Radio. It is available in almost every media market, radio market area in New Zealand, and has news reporters based in m ...

as the sports editor and radio rugby commentator. He was a sports presenter for

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

in the mid-1990s while continuing to commentate rugby for radio before making the switch to SKY Television in 1999 when SKY increased their rugby coverage and needed more commentators and presenters. Johnson has been a feature at Rugby World Cups as a fan, reporter or broadcaster (excluding the 2019 and 2023 tournaments) and has covered the Commonwealth and Olympic Games in his capacity as a radio and television reporter or commentator. Johnson is now a highly respected commentator during New Zealand's coverage of

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 ...

and the national provincial championship during the winter and regional, national and a handful of international sevens competitions throughout the summer. He has commentated a handful of

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

test matches – as SKY's main commentator is

Grant Nisbett Grant Wallace Nisbett (born 26 December 1950) is a New Zealand sports broadcaster and former TAB media liaison. He is the lead rugby commentator for SKY Network Television and called his 300th test match between the All Blacks and France at Wes ...

but mainly hosts the pre and post-match shows and appears as the sideline commentator as well. He was a commentator during the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

and

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

for host broadcaster SKY and

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

respectively. He covered equestrian for SKY during the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

coverage and sevens for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. He also hosted a weekly Tuesday evening rugby analytical show Re-Union for over a decade before that was replaced by the shortened Sunday highlights show Rugby Nation screened on Prime TV and SKY in 2014. Johnson often appears on the weekend sports shows and television news programmes voicing his opinion on rugby. He features on other radio networks as a guest contributor and a well-thought after guest speaker at events. Johnson was the co-author of the book ''Behind the Silver Fern - The Players Speak'' with Lynn McConnell. He revealed in a YouTube video he suffered from prostate cancer in 2019, which he recovered from. Johnson currently resides in the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

suburb of Northcote with his wife and daughter.

References

https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/other-sport/johnson-jumping-back-olympic-coverage https://soundcloud.com/newzealandbroadcastingschool/but-you-dont-look-sick-episode-3-chronic-health-and-following-your-passion https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/news-photo/sky-tv-commentator-tony-johnson-interviews-all-black-news-photo/72821065?adppopup=true https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/128694708/why-sky-sport-commentator-tony-johnson-doesnt-drop-the-ball-when-it-comes-to-rugby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNlnz7wJwY&ab_channel=SkySportNZ https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/128694708/why-sky-sport-commentator-tony-johnson-doesnt-drop-the-ball-when-it-comes-to-rugby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdflvCBWYO4&ab_channel=HarnessRacingNewZealand {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Tony 1959 births New Zealand television journalists Living people People educated at Queen Charlotte College People from Picton, New Zealand