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Mike Tindall on The Rugby Club

If you have played with him, if you have worked with him at all, you know that Martin Johnson will not screw over another player.

Mike Tindall
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Mike Tindall has told the Rugby Club that he would welcome the appointment of a manager to the England rugby team and that Martin Johnson has the right skills.

It has been a busy week in Twickenham with speculation rife about Brian Ashton's future as England coach and the possibility of England's World Cup winning captain taking on a managerial role between the coach and the board at the RFU.

Head of Performance Rob Andrew delivered his Six Nations review to the RFU this week but there is still no news about Ashton or Johnson.

Tindall gave the player's perspective on The Rugby Club and he says there needs to be someone between the coaching staff, the players and the RFU management board.

"It is very difficult for a player to get involved in it because you don't want to put yourself in a situation down the line that might affect you," he said.

"I hate going backwards but (Sir) Clive (Woodward) was this buffer between the players and the coaches and he stopped all the rubbish coming down. I think at the moment for Brian, he gets drawn into having to deal with so many other sides as well as having to deal with us, which is hard enough on its own."

Tindall thinks the coach's sole responsibility should be preparing the team for the next game but that it can be difficult for Ashton have to deal with players and executives.

"You meet up the week before you play Wales and you have to get a Test team out there in a week and also deal with all the external stuff that goes on with it," said the 2003 World Cup winner.

"It is very hard to do and having that team manager, who is that buffer, who he can just fire questions to but doesn't actually have to get involved with himself and can fully focus on the team. That is what the players want, so you know you have got him 100 per cent committed to you and he doesn't have to deal with the committee above.

"It is about getting that distance. The management is a completely different thing to the starting 15 or 22 that go on the field.

"Having that distance between them, that buffer zone so that Brian can just go out and spend 100 per cent on the training field, making sure we are prepared for a game.

"Then, if he needs a little bit of information, it gets filtered down. We don't really want to have anything to do with it. We don't care about the money, the sponsors, that side of it. We are there to play rugby, it is our sole reason, and that should be the coach's sole reason.

"He shouldn't have to worry about having to deal with anything externally, he should be making sure we win games on a weekend.

"In terms of whether Rob Andrew should fill that role temporarily until someone else fills that role, I don't know, but I think it is important that someone does fill that role."

So if a manager should be appointed, then Tindall has no reservations about giving the job to Johnson, the man he followed to World Cup glory.

He said: "With Jonno what you get is players trusting him. With Jonno doesn't just come this name of the greatest England player to ever played, he gets the trust of everyone involved with him.

"If you have played with him, if you have worked with him at all, you know that he will not screw over another player.

"You need a certain personality to be in that role and Jonno has that. He has the hard edge when he needs it but he has the ability to relax and distance himself and think about things. He doesn't just go out there and blurt something out, he really does think about things."