Woodward: I won't ditch Johnson

Martin Johnson will captain England against Wales next month despite his five-week suspension because Clive Woodward dare not make the same mistake again.

The England manager, whose team lost in Scotland without Johnson last year, will not give serious consideration to kicking off the Six Nations with him anywhere other than at the helm.

Woodward concedes he was wrong not to reinstate Johnson for what was supposed to have been the Grand Slam clincher at Murrayfield last year.

That day, England stuck with the Garath Archer-Simon Shaw second-row pairing - even though Johnson was fit after an achilles injury - and Woodward said: 'Looking back I now realise I made a soft decision. I decided to stick with a winning team and it cost us.' Johnson - suspended after being cited following a bruising Cup clash with Saracens - will not have played since Leicester's Premiership win at Bath on Boxing Day.

But his importance to England, as player and leader, is such that Woodward went through the formality yesterday of re-appointing him captain for the five-match series starting at the Millennium Stadium on February 3 and finishing against France at Twickenham in April.

The 30-year-old former bank official has become England's biggest selection banker. Since regaining the captaincy, initially because of Matt Dawson's inability to tour South Africa last summer following shoulder surgery, Johnson has made the job his own, with four wins out of five over Southern Hemisphere opponents.