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OTD: England World Cup winner Mike Tindall makes life changing decision

By PA
Former England and Gloucester Rugby Player Mike Tindall looks on during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Gloucester Rugby and Exeter Chiefs at Kingsholm Stadium on February 14, 2020 in Gloucester, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Mike Tindall became the final member of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning team to retire on this day in 2014.

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Tindall, then 35, decided to hang up his boots after almost two decades in the game with Bath and Gloucester.

Four days earlier, Iain Balshaw confirmed his retirement after failing to recover from a knee injury, briefly leaving Tindall as the only member of England’s triumphant World Cup squad still active.

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The Otley-born back, who married the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips in 2011, started his career with Bath in 1997 and spent eight seasons at the Rec before moving to their West Country rivals Gloucester.

Tindall spent almost a decade at Kingsholm and became player-coach following the arrival of director of rugby Nigel Davies in 2012.

He played 75 matches for England and broke his nose at least eight times during his rugby career.

Since retirement Tindall has featured on reality television shows ‘The Jump’ and ‘Bear Grylls: Mission Survive’ before finishing fourth in the 2022 series of ‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’.

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Tom 1 hour ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

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