Tindall Lends Support to Ashton

The England center Mike Tindall, a 2003 World Cup winner who missed this year's tournament because of a broken leg, believes it would be a mistake both to fire the national head coach Brian Ashton and dismantle the side which reached last month's final in next year's Six Nations.

The 29-year-old Tindall, who has made a full recovery from his injury and is expected to be in the Gloucester side in Friday night's Heineken Cup clash against Ulster at Ravenhill, says the importance of continuity should not be lost on the Rugby Football Union as it conducts its review into the World Cup campaign, particularly given what happened following the 2003 success.

"We lost some 10 players immediately, then the head coach and spent the next four years struggling for results and getting abused," said Tindall. "To me, age means nothing. The England team for the first game in the Six Nations should be made up of the best 15 players in their positions in the country. How old they are and whether they will be around for the 2011 World Cup should not come into it. One of the things that came out of France was that if the coach gets the selection right, everything else falls into place."

Ashton was criticized immediately after the World Cup by senior professionals Mike Catt and Lawrence Dallaglio, but Tindall believes the head coach is the man to take England forward. "It would be harsh to get rid of him after reaching a World Cup final. There was clearly a change of approach after the group defeat to South Africa. It is not for me to say whether that was down to the players or Brian, but whenever a squad is together for a long period of time there are times when things have to be done for the good of the team and it is not always the coaches who figure out what is the best course of action.

"A good head coach listens and that is what Brian appears to have done. These days, a number of players know just as much about the game as their coaches, if not more, and management teams have to utilize that to gain the necessary balance and harmony between the players and coaches. I knew England had the ability to reach the final, but to get there after the start they made was a tribute to everyone involved. Reviews are not for players, but we must not throw away the fruits of the last few months and to those who accused England of being boring, I would say that international rugby is about getting it right emotionally and winning. Had England been a couple of points behind France in the dying minutes of a quarter-final as New Zealand were, I know who would have won."

Tindall is surrounded at Gloucester by a number of emerging players, such as Ryan Lamb, Anthony Allen and Olly Morgan, who are expected to be part of England's 2011 campaign. "Anthony is the best inside-center in the Premiership this season, Olly is getting back to his best and Ryan is an outside-half England will not be able to ignore for long," said Tindall.

"We try to play an expansive game at Gloucester, but the Premiership and the Heineken Cup are demanding tournaments which prepare players for the knock-out stages of the World Cup while the Super 14, with its greater emphasis on skills, impacts more on the group stage. England have a number of very talented young players, but they have to be brought into the side when they are ready, not as an experiment. I am 29 and would like to think I have a few more years of international rugby in me yet."

Meanwhile the Barbarians, already denied the services of players from the Premiership for their December 1 match against South Africa at Twickenham, will not be able to include players from Leinster or Munster, even though the team is being coached by Ireland's Eddie O'Sullivan. The Barbarians had flagged the appearance of Brian O'Driscoll, but New Zealand's Conrad Smith will now feature at outside-center.