As the media continue to debate what should happen to Leicester's Martin Johnson for punching Saracens' Robbie Russell in their Zurich Premiership clash, the Tigers' man actual fate will be decided by just three men.

The Rugby Football Union's three-man disciplinary panel will sit in judgement on the incident tomorrow night in Bristol.

They are criminal lawyer Richard Lloyd Smith QC, former chairman of England selectors Derek Morgan and former Rosslyn Park and Harlequins scrum-half Richard Moon.

Smith, 39, who is a Recorder of the Crown Court, played junior rugby in Bristol, was appointed as a non-RFU chairman of the panel by Robert Horner, the RFU's disciplinary officer and also a solicitor.

Morgan, a dentist based in Cwmbran, played for Northumberland and the Barbarians. He won nine caps for England between 1960-61. Morgan has also managed England tours and is the senior vice-president of the RFU.

Moon, brother of former Wales scrum-half Rupert, is a solicitor, specialising in employment law. He set up the Rugby Union Players' Association when the game went professional and this became the PRA.

Moon won a rugby blue in 1994 and played for Rosslyn Park, Harlequins, Barbarians and the England Under-23 and B teams. He won the John Player Cup with Quins in 1988 and has been Cambridge's representative on the RFU since 1998.

If Johnson is found guilty, he could be banned for up to three weeks and miss England's Six Nations match away to France on 2 March. A longer ban is a possibility as his "previous convictions" include a five-week suspension last season for kneeing and punching Saracens players in another league match.

Russell certainly believes the panel should get tough. "It was a pretty gutless thing to do," Russell told the Evening Standard. "He should've been red carded. If the referee had taken the right action we wouldn't have had all of this leading up to the hearing.

"I've my own thoughts on what should happen and if he should be banned, but I am keeping them to myself. I was only trying to get the ball to get play re-started and was punched and then I got a yellow card as well. I just don't think this should have taken so long to sort out. I don't have a problem with Johnson."

The panel must decide whether Johnson's sin-binning was sufficient punishment.

If not, then RFU disciplinary officer Robert Horner has empowered them to take matters further, which might well mean a three-week suspension.

Such a move though could set a precedent in that any player yellow-carded for foul play would be prone to possible additional disciplinary action, despite the referee having dealt with it at the time.

That is certainly the view of Johnson's England and Leicester team-mates, while England boss Clive Woodward has urged the panel not to treat his skipper as a special case and warned against possible double standards.

The punch left Russell requiring six stitches to a cut beneath his left eye, and was caught on camera by Sky Sports.

Woodward selected Johnson for last weekend's Six Nations appointment with Ireland, although he admitted the punch was "a bad incident," and Johnson himself has expressed regret, claiming he had over-reacted in the heat of a game.

But all both men can do now is await the outcome, which should be known sometime on Thursday evening.

And if Johnson is found guilty of what is effectively a disrepute charge, then a suspended sentence might well be the most logical verdict.

"The best I can hope for, I guess, is that they treat it as they would any other incident, and accept that these things occasionally happen in rugby," Johnson said.

"Of course, I am not trying to defend what I did, but I am hoping that they will adopt a consistent attitude with similar incidents of players being sin-binned for punching.

"The flames may have been fanned a little by the press, but I am sure that the hearing will make their minds up without that, and just go on the evidence," he added, in his column on www.planet-rugby.com website.

Leicester chief executive Peter Wheeler added: "All I ask is for the hearing to take into account the work Martin does for charities and schools, and the fact that apart from his suspension last year, he has not faced one disciplinary hearing in 10 years of top-level rugby."

Johnson, capped 65 times by England and the only player to lead two Lions tours, has courted previous controversy.

Woodward banned him for one match in 1997 after he punched All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall during a Test at Old Trafford between England and New Zealand, while he landed a five-week suspension last year.

That ban was imposed by the RFU after Saracens cited Johnson on three counts of foul play following incidents in a Tetley's Bitter Cup quarter-final clash at Welford Road.

He has also received yellow cards in Five Nations games, and a caution during last season's Heineken Cup final, when Leicester beat Stade Francais.

If Johnson is ruled out of the French Six Nations clash, then Woodward will probably hand his Leicester colleague Neil Back the England captaincy and call up Danny Grewcock as Ben Kay's second-row partner.