I DON'T hold with the theory that Martin Johnson should be treated the same for punching an opponent on the pitch as he would if he had punched him off the field.

The England rugby union captain was bang out of order for clobbering another player last weekend but screams that he should be sent to prison for it are ridiculous.

Every week in one sport or another people deliberately kick and hit others. On odd occasions players have been dealt with by the law but 99 per cent of the time it is dealt with by the sporting authorities and that's the way it should be.

Those who say a footballer or rugby player should be taken to court for assaulting another player on the pitch just as they would if they commit the identical offence in the street are usually those who have never played the game.

While sport encourages players to be aggressive it has to accept the odd occasion when tempers flare and situations boil over into something unseemly.

It is ridiculous to say if a person punches someone in a pub he gets arrested so the same should happen if a punch is thrown on a sports pitch.

When was the last time you saw someone make a two-footed tackle in a pub?

They are two totally different scenarios - people are encouraged to be aggressive in one and peaceful in another - and they should not be treated the same.

However, there is no place for players assaulting each other in sport and officials have got to clamp down harder on the people who do the kind of thing Martin Johnson did last weekend and ban them for months rather than weeks.