Mike Tindall has been returned to the position he once held. Nope, not piss-licking bulldog lookalike of the year, but a member of the elite England rugby squad.
Tindall was thrown out of the squad and fined £25,000 as punishment for his role in the drunken antics of the England rugby team during a night out in Queenstown, New Zealand at this summer’s World Cup; but he has now been reinstated and his fine reduced to £15,000 following an appeal.
Though he is now back in the squad, his contract runs out at the end of the month and it’s thought to be unlikely that he’ll be selected for the Six Nations – so it appears to be little more than a token gesture to satisfy those who believed the original punishment was too harsh.
Presumably the Rugby Football Union will be keen to put this little incident behind them so they can devote their full attention to repairing their absolute clusterfuck of an organisation.
By Peter Simpson
Twitter: @weasel_delight
