THE Martin Johnson affair has been riddled with cynical self-interest from the moment the Leicester lock drove his knee into the ribcage of Duncan McRae during the Leicester-Saracens cup tie.

So no one will be at all surprised if, later today, at the Coventry Post House Hotel the appeal panel cut his 35-day suspension to enable him to get in some vital match practice before England's Six Nations opener at Cardiff next month.

The England skipper is safe in the knowledge that whatever he does on a rugby pitch he will be protected by the Rugby Football Union which is beginning to assume the appearance of a Masonic lodge rather than a governing body.

Johnson, widely respected as a massive influence for England on and off the pitch, was given the five-week suspension for punching Julian White, dropping a knee and stamping on McRae, leaving him with two broken ribs and a popped rib cartilage, and putting him out of action until sometime after Johnson's return at the beginning of February.

The 30-year-old angered many by pleading not guilty at the disciplinary meeting and then appealing at the meagre sentence.

McRae said: "It was callous of Martin Johnson to plead not guilty. I assume he did that because he is England captain. But the whole disciplinary process is flawed anyway. By next Saturday he will have served a quarter of his sentence without missing a game."

Johnson's sentence totalled 10 weeks, but the one week for punching and four weeks for the knee drop were run concurrently with the five weeks for stamping.

The decisions to come out of this affair are not surprising in any respect. Given that he was found guilty of punching and stamping, 35 days was a triumph for the defence.

The convicted man can rest his weary legs for the next five weeks before reappearing, as if by magic, at the Millennium Stadium for the Six Nations clash. Nobody questioned the fact that there was a clear conflict of interest with the RFU - the body responsible for the well-being of the national team - when the sentence was meted out.

England will pick Johnson in February, there is absolutely no question of it, and the bonus for the RFU is that he will have had a well earned rest to top up his batteries. Leicester were the obvious losers in this affair but people will have little sympathy for them after their reaction in the weeks following the McRae injury. However, once again, rugby is the main loser after another damaging episode.

Bristol's multi-millionaire chairman Malcolm Pearce is the latest to question whether he should stay in the game as he looks at the desperate state of the sport. Frustrated by the RFU's inability to make any decisions, he is now considering quitting the club at the end of the season.

He said: "The disciplinary system is falling into disrepute and needs to be reviewed. We should adopt the same system as in the European competition where the match commissioner sits in judgement directly after a match.

"Johnson should have been banned for the rest of the season for what he did in the cup tie and certainly shouldn't be allowed to train with the England squad while he is suspended."

While that argument makes sense for the good of the game, it doesn't protect anybody's interests and that would never do. That is what we are left with at the end of this sorry affair. Nobody comes out of it with any credit, not the RFU, Leicester Tigers or Johnson. And when his appeal is heard later today, you sense there's another chapter of woe still to come.