1
Mike Tindall: A brief rugby history
By Sam Smith
While for many Mike Tindall will be better known for his royal marriage and his newfound career as a reality television star, for rugby fans he will enduringly be me known as a no-nonsense centre who made his mark in both Test rugby and domestically in the Premiership.
Tindall, born in Otley, West Yorkshire, won 75 caps for England during his 17-year playing career, scoring a try on his international debut against Ireland in 2000.
He featured in the centres for England during their Rugby World Cup 2003 success, maybe most famously picking up and dumping Wallabies scrumhalf George Gregan in the final.
He captained England in 2011, scored 14 tries in total and made his final appearance for his country the same year.
His international career wasn't without blemishes. He was thrown out of the England squad and fined £25,000 by the Rugby Football Union for his “unacceptable” drunken conduct during the 2011 World Cup, held in New Zealand from September to October.
Tindall, who had attended a ‘dwarf-racing contest’ at a Queenstown bar, was later reinstated by England on appeal and saw his fine reduced to £15,000.
In July that same year, Tindall had married Zara Phillips, the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal, in Edinburgh.
He joined first club Bath in 1997 straight from Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield and made 108 appearances before signing for West Country rivals Gloucester in 2005.
Tindall featured in 181 games for Gloucester and in 2012 became player-coach at the club and announced his retirement from rugby in 2014.
Thirty-five at the time, he became the final member of Sir Clive Woodward’s triumphant 2003 squad to call time on his playing career.
He confirmed his decision four days after good friend and former team-mate Iain Balshaw became the penultimate member of England’s World Cup-winning side to retire.
When announcing his retirement, Tindall told BBC Five Live: “It wasn’t a hard decision in the end. It was a case of staying another year at Gloucester or retiring.
“I didn’t want to go and play at another club so it was an easy decision. No way would I change anything or feel sad about anything.”
additional reporting PA
Trending on RugbyPass
2
South Africa vs England player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
3
Ireland player ratings vs Argentina | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
4
Jake White: As England coach, I’d have been livid
5
Latest Comments
Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
Go to comments