Johnson planning a complete break

Rugby: Two of rugby's most high-profile players will be in opposition for the last time at Twickenham in June. For Jonah Lomu the match will be the chance to step out of the shadows of a serious illness.

For Martin Johnson it will be the final first-class match before England's World Cup-winning captain calls it a day.

The game on June 4th between a Northern Hemisphere XV and a Southern Hemisphere XV will be the first the former All Black has played since his kidney transplant last July.

Lomu, who turns 30 this year, has suffered from nephrotic syndrome. As he said yesterday: "I went through a period when I was not able to walk to the bathroom. I used to take two steps and fall over. Now I can run."

His doctor, John Mayhew, has said: "It's almost frightening to think what he could have been had he not played so much of his career with a huge medical handbrake."

But the career of Johnson, who will be 35 when he steps out at Twickenham for the final time, has been in overdrive since the age of 22 when he made a quick trip down the M1 to make his Test debut against France the following day.

Johnson was a late replacement for Wade Dooley that day and subsequently earned 83 more England caps, finishing at the top 14 months ago with that epic World Cup win in Sydney. In between, Johnson became the first man to lead the Lions twice, victoriously in South Africa in 1997 and frustratingly falling short in Australia four years later.

Yesterday's announcement that the game on June 4th will be Johnson's last will rob the English landscape of its most enduring and sometimes controversial of figures.

A formidable athlete, the Leicester lock knows that life is difficult in the Premiership and European Cup when so many miles are on the clock.

"It's a very personal thing. Some guys may be happy to play at 45, but you can't slog away on the training pitch day in, day out with 18- and 19-year-old kids if your mind is not fully on the game.

"And, while Leicester will always be my club, I don't want to be hanging around the training ground giving people advice. I intend to take some time away from rugby and decide what to do then."

Meanwhile, hooker Gordon Bulloch has been named as Scotland's captain for this year's Six Nations. The 29-year-old, who is Scotland's most capped hooker with 70 Test appearances, was captain in Scotland's four internationals in November against Australia, Japan and South Africa.

Coach Matt Williams said Bulloch had deserved the opportunity to lead the country again. "Gordon was very good in the November Tests, but it was a short period of captaincy for him to make his mark," said Williams.

For the second year running, Ireland's women's team will line out on the same pitch as their male counterparts at Murrayfield during the Six Nations. Last year Ireland played at Twickenham before the big game of the day, but this time the women's game will be played after Brian O'Driscoll and co have departed. Kick-off is a 6 p.m.