England great Martin Johnson reveals the All Blacks' secret to success

England rugby great Martin Johnson has the answer to why the All Blacks are so successful and he's spreading the word ahead of the upcoming Lions series in New Zealand.

Johnson lifted the Rugby World Cup trophy in 2003 after leading England to their only World Cup success and was part of the last British and Irish Lions side to beat the All Blacks.

The former England and Lions lock played in the second test 20-7 victory over the All Blacks in 1993. He returned to Wellington 10 years later to lead England to a famous win at Westpac Stadium.

In an interview with the British Telegraph, Johnson, who played for the New Zealand schools team, says the All Blacks just don't make silly errors. Something the Lions will have to match in New Zealand.

"I say to kids all the time: 'What do the All Blacks do differently to everyone else?' There isn't an answer to that. Everyone sees what they do, and invariably people always try to copy successful stuff," Johnson told the Telegraph.

"They just do what they do very well. They don't make glaring, silly errors. Often in rugby, someone will do something slightly wrong, which leads to the next man being a bit more wrong, which leads to an error. The All Blacks don't do that first bit, so the second bit works and the third bit works well.

"If you're not making errors, you are not taking the pressure off teams. Eventually they do make a mistake, and then the All Blacks capitalise by not making errors, doing everything very well - those are what people call 'the basics', the fundamentals of the game. But the All Blacks execute them all the time, under pressure. Bang, bang, bang. When you add all of those together, you get a very good team performance.

Johnson played eight tests for the Lions from 1993 to 2001 before retiring from rugby at the end of England's victorious 2003 World Cup campaign.

Regarded as one of England's greatest ever forwards, Johnson faced the All Blacks on nine occasions during his career and played in four victories over New Zealand.

He told the Telegraph that if the Lions do the basics right then the series against the All Blacks could come down to some individual brilliance.

"Whatever you do against them, you have to do it so well that it puts them under pressure. If two teams are doing that, it might come down to someone with a bit of X factor finding something."