The biggest players in professional rugby always attract extra attention.

With nowhere to hide, the tallest timber never needs reminding that opposing teams want to cut them down. It is one of the occupational hazards that come with being super-sized.

Standing over two metres tall, Justin Harrison became the target for the British and Irish Lions when he was called into the Wallabies’ side to make his Test debut for the third and deciding Test of their epic 2001 series.

Rarely has any player stepped into such a pressure-packed situation under the intense level of scrutiny that Harrison faced at the time.

But Goog, as he’s known in rugby circles, embraced the added attention and responsibility that came his way, and delivered a play that has become part of Australian rugby folklore.

Turning the tables on the Lions by targeting their own colossus in Martin Johnson, Harrison famously stole a lineout at the death to seal the Wallabies’ first and only series win over the combined might of the Home Nations.

Almost a quarter of a century later, supporters of both teams are still divided over Harrison’s stature. To Australian rugby fans, he’s a national sporting hero, but to the Lions’ rabid supporter base, he’s a villain because it shattered their dreams with his epic payback.

“All these years later, it’s still the thing I get asked the most about,” Harrison said during an illuminating sit-down interview about his immortal play.

“It was pretty cool, but a lot of other people were involved and a lot of things also fell into place.”

Chief among those is the often forgotten fact that Harrison almost quit rugby a year before his incredible Test career ever began after he suffered a shocking injury while playing for the Brumbies in 2000.

FROM CAREER-ENDING INJURY TO GLORY

He badly damaged the nerves in his arm, losing a lot of the feeling in the limb, and was told by doctors that his footy career was finished so he should start thinking about a different career in sports administration which he was studying at the University of Canberra.

Sidelined, he continued working out in the gym to keep fit and even went to Melbourne for surgery that freed up a bit of the scar tissue when the then-Brumbies coach Eddie Jones got in his ear and told him, ‘mate, why don’t you just play and see how it goes?”

So Harrison took the advice and things went better than expected, with the lanky lock playing a lead role in helping the Brumbies win the 2001 Super Rugby title.

With John Eales and David Giffin both automatic choices as the Wallabies locks for the Lions series after teaming up in the Australian side that won the World Cup in 1999, Harrison was not a serious consideration for the Lions series, though he desperately wanted to be.

He was invited to join the training squad to provide some opposition to Eales and Giffin in their set piece drills, and was also selected in the Australia A side that infuriated the Lions by beating them 28-25 in an early tour match played at Gosford .

“There was a bit of a word going around that if the Lions go through the tour undefeated they were going to get a 50 grand bonus each,” Harrison said.

“So that was actually a big theme for our blokes. There’s no way we were letting them go through undefeated.

“Plus, we all wanted to get into the Test team, and we actually had a pretty good side for that game.

“Manny Edmonds kicked nine penalties or something. It was an amazing game for him. Tom Bowman was in the second row, Jimmy Williams was playing, Nathan Grey, Graham Bond, Chris Whittaker was captain, Eddie Jones was coach. It was a good unit.”

THE FEUD WHICH IGNITED AUSSIE COMEBACK

That match was also where Harrison’s long running feud with Austin Healey, the Lions’ combative scrum half, kicked off. They weren’t aware of it at the time, but their names are forever linked in one of the most colourful chapters in Lions rugby history.

“Austin and I had already sort of developed our ‘love affair’ at Australia A,” Harrison said.

“He was just being a mosquito around the rucks and being a bit of a cheap shotter…so I grab him and march him over the sideline, and from then on it became a bit of a thing.

“It was probably the first time I became acutely aware of a different type of reporting of rugby. We were insular in what we were exposed to… but these blokes were doing full-blown opinion pieces and full-character ghostwritten articles that I didn’t even know about.

“So while I thought my interaction with him was just between us and the people at the stadium, it was going a lot wider than that.’

The Lions thrashed the Wallabies to win the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane but Harrison and Healey went at each other again soon after when the Brumbies hosted the tourists in Canberra on the Wednesday before the second Test.

That was a heartbreaking result for the Brumbies, who led for the entire match but went down 30-28 when Healey scored a try after the final siren which the Lions converted to win.

Gutted by the defeat, Harrison was invited back to train with the Wallabies, who bounced back to win the second Test in Melbourne, ahead of the series decider in Sydney.

FROM WATER BOY TO UNLIKELY HERO

When the team was announced on the Thursday, Harrison’s name was not read out so he packed his bags and was about to check out of the team hotel to return to club rugby when the phone in his room rang.

The Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen was on the other end and he told Harrison to stay put because he had something to tell him.

“So he comes and sits down and starts talking to me about Australia A, saying ‘well done, you beat them, you gave the squad a real shot, you’re popular, you’ve been training well, you’re going well, good season with the Brumbies, you’re a popular member of the squad and you’ve fitted in well,” Harrison said.

“Then he says ‘we’ve got a really important job for you on Saturday night. Management has had a talk about it and we’ve just come out of a meeting and we want you to be the water boy for Saturday night.

“I’m listening but I can’t believe this is happening, that I’m going to take the field with the Wallabies as a water boy. This is a disaster inside but how do I look like it’s an honour?

“He’s saying ‘it’ll be really good for you to experience the Test arena, to know what it’s like out in the field, get my messages, you’ll know the line-up calls, you can help, all that stuff, right?

“So I say ‘ thanks, that’s great’ and let him out of the room and Giff (David Giffin) is standing there and he says ‘G’day Goog mate. I just wanted to come down and congratulate you and be the first to tell you you’re gonna play on Saturday night’.

“I thought it was a shit joke. I said Rod Macqueen just told me I’m a water boy, but Giff says ‘mate, I’ve just come out of a medical and I’ve failed because of my hamstring. We’ve been ringing Rod Macqueen’s room to try and tell him that I’m out and you’re in.”

Unsure what to believe, Harrison closed the door and went back inside his room. And waited.

About 15 minutes later, the phone rang again. It was Macqueen and he said he wanted another chat.

“So he started off with the same spiel,” Harrison said.

“‘Australia A, really good, Brumbies, very good, popular member of the squad, management have had a chat and they’re unanimous… Congratulations, you’re in the Test team. You’re going to start with Ealesy.”

Blindsided by his sudden selection, but with the match kicking off in just two days, Harrison didn’t have time to dwell on everything that had happened.

His only thoughts were preparing for the match and he was, naturally, a little nervous because of the enormity of the occasion. The Wallabies had never won a series against the Lions and the 84,000 seat Olympic stadium in Sydney was completely sold out.

BANANAS, AN INSULT AND PRE-GAME MIND GAMES

Then on the morning of the game, something unexpected happened. Harrison opened his hotel room door and found a bunch of bananas that had been left for him.

He assumed they were left by a team dietitian so he unpeeled one and started eating it as he headed to the team’s breakfast hall, where he was greeted by sniggering and a room full of eyeballs.

On one of the tables was a copy of a newspaper column that Healey had written, in which he unloaded on Harrison, labelling him as a plod, plank and an ape.

It was childish stuff from the Englishman, who had already withdrawn from the series decider and was already on his way home, but the Lions were furious believing he had given the Wallabies’ rookie a psychological boost even though the truth is Harrison paid little attention to it.

“I knew he wasn’t playing, he’d injured himself in the Brumbies game,” Harrison said.

“He wrongly accused me of kneeing him in the back when he was scoring.

‘He thinks it’s me, in his article, he writes ‘it’s my old mate, Justin Harrison, the plod, plank and ape’.

‘And then he bags Australian supporters as well. Just stupid shit. I just read it and thought, that’s interesting but it didn’t really affect me at all.

“If you’re looking for column space to find motivation for a series deciding match in front of 80,000 people, you’re in trouble.”

Harrison was preoccupied with getting ready for the match and had made a pact to try and get involved early and never take a backward step in what was expected to be a fiery, physical battle with the giant Lions’ forward pack.

“I had played in some big stadiums and in front of big crowds before but this was the first time I was really aware of the noise,” Harrison said.

“This one was a physical assault. It was almost like one of those superhero movies where you see the explosion and you see the shockwave. That’s what it felt like. It felt to me like the whole world was there.

“I couldn’t see anything but people and there was just this noise that I was trying to swim through, all the while trying to fill my 7XL jersey that was way too big for me.

“But the newness of it was great. I’m not necessarily a musical person, and I certainly don’t sing in the shower or enjoy karaoke, but during the anthems, I’m thinking, this is one of the few times where I’m just going to rip in because it’s my country.

“My biggest fear was to be passionate and just occupy a jumper and not really do anything but once the game started, it was just bang and I was into it.”

Harrison thought back to one of the key messages Jones had always told him, that ‘you’ve got to find one or two things that you’re good at and be world class at it’ and ‘you’ve got to let people know you’re out there.

“So there’s the first scuffle and Johnson has a bit of a go and I’m into it. I grab him, he grabs me and just about chokes me out in the middle of the field.

“But I’m like: ‘righto this is it, I’m looking for the biggest meanest guy there and that helped me.”

THE LINEOUT STEAL THAT MADE HISTORY

While Healey’s snide remarks had no impact on Harrison, the Australian still delivered the ultimate payback when he pulled off the clutch play in the dying minutes of the series with Australia clinging to a 29-23 lead but under enormous pressure and about to defend a Lions lineout on their own line.

Fearful the tourists could repeat what they did against the Brumbies and steal the win at the end with a converted try from the lineout, Harrison had a flash of inspiration, but it involved a high risk.

While teams often choose not to contest lineouts on their own line because it can hamper their ability to defend against the ensuing maul, Harrison had a strong hunch the Lions hooker Keith Wood was going to throw to Johnson, who was jumping at two in the lineout, but he could intercept it.

“They kicked for touch, so you know there’s a maul coming. It’s just like oxygen, it’s definitely happening,” Harrison said.

“We were running back towards it and hadn’t formed yet, and I said ‘I’m going to have a crack at this.

“There was a lot of energy around Johnson so it had to be going to him, but I wasn’t so presumptuous that I was gonna tell Ealesy what to do and how to do it.

“There was a bit of pushback, but the senior guys are like ‘OK then.

“So I’m taking these markers all the way through and thinking, this is right, this feels good. Plus I’m here to do this, if you’re not here to do this, what are you here to do? Do your job, right? As Jones said ‘one or two jobs, world class’. And this is my job.

“And then it happens. I got it right. I’m coming up and the ball’s coming towards me. It’s so clear in my mind. Keith Wood’s sort of under thrown and he’s a bit relaxed about it. And Johnson’s almost like, what is this bloke doing?

“I get a mitt in front and I feel it hit my hand, it hits my arm, ricochets down to my knee and back up to hand and I remember hitting the ground going ‘oh, that’s the ball. I caught it.

“Then for the first time in the whole game I can hear the crowd go mad.”

The match wasn’t over because there were still a few minutes left on the clock. But the Lions’ last real opportunity had come after one of the greatest moments in the sport’s history, that’s still being talked about.

“Lots of things had to go right for me to get that to happen,” Harrison. “Lots of people were involved but it worked out all right.”