England's 2003 World Cup winning captain, and twice tour leader of the British & Irish Lions, Johnson has missed this summer's trip to New Zealand because his wife is due to deliver their second child.
But having seen England go down to the All Blacks in the first Test at Auckland, and be troubled by off the field allegations regarding the conduct of four players, Johnson has moved to back his players.
"'I've spoken to Martin and, with somebody of his character, any conversation you have with him is going to be a positive experience," explained Borthwick.
"When you have got a game against the All Blacks to prepare for at the weekend, the focus is very clear and we are a tight group. Our preparations have gone well.
"As soon as we started training on Monday after the loss of the first Test, we were very clear on what we needed to do to improve performance from and ensure we get a better result.
"'What you saw on Saturday was an immense amount of effort and the guys were tremendously courageous - but ultimately we made too many errors.
"We need to display that courage and effort again as a team, but add greater accuracy into our game. We can improve markedly from where we were.
"I hope we can ask the All Blacks some big question by enacting what we failed to do on Saturday in terms of our attacking game."
Johnson led England to victory over New Zealand in 2003 in the build-up to his side's World Cup triumph in Australia later that year.