SIX NATIONS: Six Nations chief Allan Hosie has pledged to clamp down on violence and bad behaviour in the wake of the Martin Johnson affair. The England and Leicester captain was banned by the English RFU for three weeks for punching Saracens hooker Robbie Russell, but only after a drawn out and controversial appeal.

Johnson contested the RFU's right to put him on trial in the first place and his second hearing was delayed long enough for him to play in the Six Nations game against France.

As a result, officials from the Six Nations countries met in Dublin to discuss disciplinary procedures and practices at both domestic and international level in response to growing concerns about perceived inconsistencies.

"The unanimous wish of the meeting was to maintain a strong and united challenge to violence and bad behaviour. We mean to keep our sport clean," said Hosie, chairman of the Six Nations committee, yesterday.

"Furthermore, we underlined our collective determination to maintain robust resistance to the procedural challenge, which appears regrettably to have accompanied the advent of the professional era, and which has no place in a game which takes pride in good sportsmanship." The committee will reconvene on April 25th.

World Cup chairman Vernon Pugh has, meanwhile, received strong backing from his fellow directors for the way he has handled the co-hosting crisis involving Australia and New Zealand. "The board stands by its decisions with regard to RWC 2003 and wishes to reiterate its confidence in Mr Pugh's leadership," the directors said in a statement.

Pugh has come under fire from New Zealand rugby authorities after he ditched them as hosts of next year's competition after their failure to guarantee stadiums free of sponsorship. Australian officials are currently working on proposals which would see them stage the entire tournament, a scenario which is starting to cause panic at government level inside New Zealand. Sports minister Trevor Mallard travelled to Australia yesterday to meet Pugh.

Mallard said Pugh had said "the door was still open for New Zealand", with Pugh himself admitting "there are still things to be considered". It would take a dramatic change for New Zealand to be allowed back into the fold.