William Drew Johnson (born May 29, 1984) is an American

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 Rosslyn Park and the . Johnson was selected to tour with the USA Eagles for the Autumn 2010 tour of Europe. Johnson's first cap for the USA was on his 25th birthday in 2009 against Ireland and now-teammate Bob Casey. He received notoriety in British press for his second cap against Wales; he collided with and concussed Welsh captain, Ryan Jones, on the opening kickoff ending the latter's Lion's tour.

Rugby career

A December 2009

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

article details Will Johnson's late and interesting introduction to rugby. He played his first-ever match in January 2007 for San Francisco's

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...

; he had picked up rugby on a 'lark' following NFL camps with the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

and

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

. Will was an All-American offensive lineman at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

In 2008 he matriculated at Pembroke College to play for

Oxford University RFC The Oxford University Rugby Football Club (Oxford University RFC or OURFC) is the rugby union club of the University of Oxford. The club contests The Varsity Match every year against Cambridge University at Twickenham. History Men's team ...

. He was contracted by

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

for the 2010–2011 season and Rosslyn Park 2011-2012.

References

External links

Player Profile eaglesxv.com

Player Profile London-Irish.com
1984 births Living people American rugby union players United States international rugby union players Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Harvard University alumni Oxford University RFC players Rugby union props {{US-rugbyunion-bio-stub