Tindall reinstated – so where does that leave Rob Andrew?

ROB ANDREW, director of elite rugby at the RFU, said last week that English rugby had hit rock bottom. It appears he was wrong. For just a fortnight after the RFU announced that England's World Cup vice-captain Mike Tindall had been fined £25,000 and dropped from the England squad for misconduct, the punishment has been slashed.

The decision by RFU chief executive Martyn Thomas to restore Tindall (married to Zara Phillips, the Queen's grand-daughter) to the England squad and reduce his fine from £25,000 to £15,000 is a further blow to the beleaguered Andrew.

Andrew has come under enormous pressure in recent weeks to resign following the departure as manager of Martin Johnson and the leaking to the press of three confidential reports into England's shambolic World Cup campaign.

Andrew has steadfastly refused to quit despite widespread criticism in the press. But whether he can survive this latest humiliation remains to be seen. It was Andrew who made an example of Tindall after the 33-year-old was caught by CCTV in the arms of a mystery blonde during a raucous night out in a New Zealand bar that was also hosting a dwarf-wrestling competition.

In announcing the original fine, Andrew described how he had "considered all the evidence carefully" and concluded that Tindall's conduct was "unacceptable".

In reducing the punishment on appeal the RFU disciplinary board declared: "We accept there were mitigating factors which do not appear to have been taken into account to the extent that they might otherwise have been. Mike did not intentionally mislead the RFU team management when he stated he could not remember where he was on the night of 11 September and that he was relying on other people's versions of events which were relayed to him."

That Tindall didn't knowingly mislead the England management is at odds with previous versions of the night in question when the Gloucester centre was accused of lying about his whereabouts.

The Independent says that the RFU's latest announcement leaves them in "disarray" with the decision to reduce Tindall's punishment "widely seen as the latest blow struck in Twickenham's increasingly destructive committee-room conflict".

The Daily Telegraph takes a similar line, commenting: "Thomas will be accused of score-settling with Andrew in going against his original decision. The pair are long-standing adversaries".

The RFU might have hit rock bottom, but the digging goes on. ·