Mike Tindall

[zetec]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/159284...

Good.

Had he not married Zara Phillips his antics at the World Cup would never had made the papers. Anyways, his antics were hardly scandalous, as Martin Johnson said, "Rugby player drinks beer, shocker"!

I'm glad that now the hysteria has died down he has been reinstated to where he belongs.

Is this another blow for our beleagured British press, trying to make a story out of nothing and ending up with egg on their faces?

[sparkythecat]

Had England been world cup finalists, their off the field antics would have been quickly forgotten.
As it is, they played st and are paying the price for that failure.

[elster]

sparkythecat said:

Had England been world cup finalists, their off the field antics would have been quickly forgotten.
As it is, they played st and are paying the price for that failure.

Personally I think the two go hand in hand.

I'm surprised they were allowed to go out drinking when during the competition. Going back to the old days.

[Hackney]

"Mike did not intentionally mislead the RFU team management when he stated that he could not remember where he was on the night of September 11"

So he was so pissed he can't remember where he was.
Or he lied.

Idiot.
And reinstatement shows the RFU to be toothless.

If England had won....well, we were never likely to were we with this bunch of idiots

[Murph7355]

Hackney said:

...
And reinstatement shows the RFU to be toothless....

Hapless. Toothless. Useless.

The fish rots from the head down. The RFU needs a proper shake up - when some of the candidates for the head coach job are saying "only if things change in the RFU", there's something not right.

All that said, the players who pissed about let down someone they allegedly have a lot of respet for. Not clever. Especially with the hopeless display on the pitch. I would bet they're very proud.

[Egg Chaser]

I still find it bizarre how he can be fined £15,000 for it, which was reduced from £25,000. I just don't understand how they can justify that. As mentioned above, it would be a complete none-story if he wasn't married to Zara Phillips. If it was anyone else, noone would have given a fk (not that anyone does anyway, they just want something to whinge about...). As I see it, he went for a few drinks and did a bit of alcohol-induced flirting with an old friend; it's hardly cheating, is it? Rugby and drinking go hand in hand, everyone knows that. Whether they should've gone out drinking during the World Cup, well, that's a different story.

It's also worth mentioning that Israel Dagg and Corey Jane (from the All Blacks) went out drinking just two days before their quarter-final game, yet noone seems to care about that, and they didn't receive a ridiculous fine for it.

I'm not sure whether Tindall deserves to still be in the squad though, he was absolutely st throughout the World Cup.

[DJRC]

The trouble is he was the Senior player in the squad, de facto Captain with Moody injured and Jonno's GoTo "loyalty" man, his own personal Coach's Pick, as it were, in the face of advice and evidence that others were more deserving of their place.

In return for all the personal faith and loyalty that Jonno placed in the chap he repaid him with pennies. Add in that he was Queen's grandson by marriage and a marriage that was relatively recent and so high profile. Add in "mystery blonde" and add in "dwarf tossing" and you have perfect Tabloid fodder.

What Goes On Tour...no longer stays on tour