Foden backs Tindall to answer critics on pitch

BEN FODEN has backed Mike Tindall to “show the critics he is here to win a World Cup” when England tackle Romania in Saturday’s Pool B clash at the Otago Stadium.

Tindall has been at the centre of off-field controversy since joining a group of team-mates on a night out drinking in Queenstown, two days after captaining England to a 13-9 victory over Argentina.

The Gloucester centre has also been labelled by Saracens technical director Brendan Venter as “the personification of everything that is wrong with England’s attack” at the World Cup.

Despite the storm surrounding him, Tindall retains the faith of the England management and he is poised for a recall after being rested for last weekend’s 41-10 victory over Georgia.

“I’m sure he’ll answer his critics the same way he usually does. Mike’s a very professional guy. He hasn’t let it influence him in training or anything like that. It’s a personal matter that he’s sorting out. He seems fine. I think it’s all been eradicated and quickly forgotten,” said Foden.

“He’ll be keener than anyone to go out there on the weekend and show the critics he is here to win a World Cup and perform well for England.”

Tindall found himself in the news media spotlight after closed circuit television pictures emerged of him in conversation with a woman at Queenstown’s Altitude Bar.

A source close to the player and his new wife Zara Phillips, the British queen’s granddaughter, has said the woman is an old friend of the couple.

Tindall was in the backpackers’ nightspot with a number of other England players, who had been given the evening off by Johnson and told to let off some steam. A bouncer who worked at the backpacker’s bar has been charged by police with illegally obtaining the CCTV footage, which was posted onto the internet.

Johnson insisted he would rather walk away from rugby than lock his squad in the hotel, as Fabio Capello did with the England footballers at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

But veteran England lock Simon Shaw – one of the few remaining players to have experienced the amateur days – fears rugby is now on an inevitable slide towards the football-style siege mentality.

“I truly hope that doesn’t happen but I fear it probably will,” Shaw said. “What I have always loved about rugby, and what the spectators have always loved, is the fact they can gain access to players. The more this continues, the less and less access the supporters will have to players because players will just hide away.”