Woodward wants equality for 'role model' Johnson

Clive Woodward, the England manager, has placed rugby's creaking disciplinary system under increased strain by demanding that Martin Johnson, his captain, be treated "like any other player" when he appears before a three-man tribunal on Thursday evening, to answer charges arising from punching the Saracens hooker Robbie Russell during a Premiership match eight days ago.

"Martin threw a punch, and there are a lot of punches thrown in the Premiership," said Woodward, who came under fierce attack, not least from the French national coach Bernard Laporte, for playing Johnson at the weekend. "If he is banned, every other player who throws a punch should be banned. If that doesn't happen, I'll be very disappointed." The manager repeated his view that in the England shirt Johnson was a "role model".

In response to Laporte, who dropped David Auradou from Six Nations duty and refused to promote the former captain Fabien Pelous to the starting line-up because of recent sin-bin offences, Woodward said: "I agree with Bernard's stance on discipline, but our track record in this regard has been outstanding. Actually, I think we're leading the way on this. We've dealt with our problem – certain players have been removed from the squad because their discipline doesn't stack up under pressure – and Bernard is now dealing with his. And anyway, I was interested to see that Pelous was on the bench for France's game with Wales. You either drop a guy, or you don't; you're either pregnant, or you're not."

Woodward, who pointed out that Johnson did not concede a single penalty for England last year, clearly feels that the Leicester lock is the victim of his own high profile.

Johnson was sin-binned for fighting with Russell and under normal circumstances, the 10-minute punishment would have been the end of the matter. However, the Rugby Football Union's disciplinary officer, Robert Horner, can investigate any incident under a catch-all regulation dealing with conduct deemed "prejudicial to the interests of the union or the game". After several days of media pressure, Horner decided to act by appointing a panel under the chairmanship of the criminal lawyer, Richard Smith QC.