Johnson confident England won’t suffer Royal distraction

MARTIN JOHNSON insists England’s preparations for tomorrow’s clash with Romania will not be thrown off course by the arrival in Dunedin of Zara Phillips.

The British queen’s grand-daughter is due to watch husband Mike Tindall in action for the first time at the Rugby World Cup after flying into New Zealand.

Tindall has been at the centre of 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. Johnson yesterday blocked Tindall from answering some tough questions about the now infamous booze-up, insisting the whole issue had been “put to bed”.