Spencer in chair for Johnson appeal

A former England captain will preside over Martin Johnson's appeal tomorrow night when a re-constituted RFU panel considers the case.

John Spencer, a 53-year-old Yorkshire solicitor who led his country on four occasions 30 years ago, is no stranger to sitting in judgment on the occasional rugby cause celebre, having sat on two within the last 18 months.

The ex-Cambridge University and Headingley centre served on the the RFU panel set up under the independent chairmanship of Justice Popplewell which cleared another England captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, of drug allegations.

More recently, Spencer was a member of the International Board inquiry which declared New Zealander Shane Howarth ineligible to play for Wales.

Two other members of the RFU council from the shires will join Spencer on the three-man tribunal in Coventry. John Loughton, the Notts, Lincs and Derby representative for the last five years, is a headmaster in Mansfield, and Geoff Payne, the member for Warwickshire, runs a manufacturing business near Rugby.

They replace Commodore Jeff Blackett, RN, former England captain Bob Taylor and the RFU's Surrey representative, Peter Budge.