Johnson's ban will stand
March 5, 2002

Martin Johnson's appeal against his Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing has been dismissed. His 21-day suspension will stand.

It means he will miss England's next Lloyds TSB Six Nations game against Wales on March 23, plus Leicester's Zurich Premiership appointments with Bath and Gloucester.

Tuesday's six-hour hearing at Twickenham was conducted in front of independent arbitrator David Pannick QC.

And the outcome is a massive blow for Leicester and Johnson, who had contested the RFU's right to put him on trial in the first place.

Johnson was not appealing against either the fact he punched Russell, or the sentence.

His - and Leicester's - argument was that the RFU did not have the power to effectively punish him twice for the same offence.

Referee Dave Pearson sent the England skipper to the sin bin on the intervention of a touch-judge, but this was deemed by the RFU to be insufficient penalty.

Johnson's appeal was widely condemned, as it left him free to captain England against France at the weekend.

His presence however, was not enough to prevent England slipping to a 20-15 defeat which wrecked another potential Grand Slam.

The player will not now be available until the visit to Wasps on Easter Sunday, before taking up his role as England skipper in the final match of the Six Nations campaign against Italy in Rome.

England coach Clive Woodward reacted philosophically to the verdict.

"I accept the decision made by the QC today," he said. "If available, Neil Back will captain England against Wales on March 23."

Woodward had been criticised for naming Johnson in his starting line-up in Paris, but insisted he would pick the best players available to him.

Leicester's gamble in not naming their skipper for the Premiership encounter with Northampton the day after Johnson's appeal was lodged has backfired.

Because he had been free to play in that match if required, it didn't come under the terms of the original ban.

Johnson will now miss the visit to Bath on Saturday, plus the home encounter with second-placed Gloucester a week later, where victory would almost certainly see the Tigers win a fourth successive Premiership title.

Johnson was not required to attend the Twickenham gathering and he exercised that option.

Leicester chief executive Peter Wheeler and director of rugby Dean Richards were in attendance, together with Johnson's high-powered legal team.

The appeal was against the jurisdiction of an RFU disciplinary panel that banned Johnson for three weeks when they assembled in Bristol 12 days ago.

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