Robert Johnston and Thomas Crean first met each other on the rugby fields of Ireland during the early 1890s, when they played for Dublin Wanderers. Crean was studying medicine at the Royal College of Physicians, and Johnston was in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, which he had joined at the age of 18.
Both men were chosen for the 1896 British Lions tour of South Africa under the captaincy of Johnny Hammond from Cambridge University.
