Johnson in dock over foul play charge

13 April 2012

England captain Martin Johnson is to be charged on two counts of foul play over separate incidents during Leicester's Tetley's Bitter Cup win over Saracens.

The RFU was in the process last night of appointing a three-man disciplinary tribunal to hear the case brought by Saracens citing the Lions lock for allegedly punching his England colleague Julian White and putting a knee into their Australia stand- off Duncan MacRae. The latter will not play again until the New Year because of a rib injury which Sarries claim was caused by Johnson's challenge.

Sarries' chief executive, Francois Pienaar, took the action after watching a videotape of the match. 'It shows the incident clearly,' he said. 'After dropping his knee into Duncan's ribs, Johnson also stamped on him. We are without our fly half for between five and seven weeks because of foul play.

'We are no saints and usually we don't bother when there's been some fisticuffs in the heat of the moment. More often than not, you sweep it under the carpet, but this happened after the ball had gone.

'It's a physical game and I under-stand that as well as anyone. This is not a case of sour grapes. We are now missing a key player at a key time and this cannot go unpunished.

Martin also punched Julian White in the face. Julian had been his England team-mate a week before and I find that a little hard to understand.'

Once Saracens brought their action, accompanied by the obligatory £125 deposit, the RFU's disciplinary officer Robert Horner took steps towards arranging the hearing which cannot take place until next week. Under citing rules, Leicester have until the end of this week to counter the accusation.

Tigers manager Dean Richards said: 'I have only just received written notice of the allegations. We will investigate and take whatever action we deem necessary.'

Johnson has been cited before, by the All Blacks over an off-the-ball incident involving their scrum half Justin Marshall during England's defeat at Old Trafford three years ago. New Zealand's protest resulted in England suspending Johnson for one match. If found guilty of the charges brought by Saracens, he would face another ban but nothing likely to jeopardise his availability for England's next match, against Wales in Cardiff on February 3.

Leicester chief executive Peter Wheeler, a former England captain, said: 'Martin's known as a hard but fair player, not a dirty one.'

Scott Gibbs, one of Johnson's Lions colleagues during the winning series in South Africa three years ago, has escaped a ban for punching after the coaches of the clubs concerned decided that the game had gone too soft.

He received no punishment for punching back row forward Andrew Williams in Swansea's Welsh Scottish League win at Caerphilly.

Rival coaches Gareth Nicholas (Caerphilly) and John Plumtree (Swansea) agreed to drop the matter. 'We decided rugby was getting soft enough without citing for something like that,' said Plumtree.

Nicholas, surprised that Gibbs escaped a sin-binning for 'smacking Andrew in the mouth' , accepted Plumtree's assurance that the incident would be dealt with 'in- house'. Plumtree is adamant that Gibbs' absence from this weekend's match against bottom club Cross Keys has nothing to do with the incident.

'Scott deserves a break before the big matches against Neath and Llanelli,' said Plumtree.

The RFU yesterday abandoned attempts to find a neutral venue for the Tetley's Bitter Cup semi-finals. It confirmed that the Harlequins-Leicester tie will take place at The Stoop, with Newcastle-Sale at Kingston Park. Both ties will be played on January 6.

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