Mike Tindall

Professions :

Born :

October 18, 1978

Playing for England was a massive honour and when I was in the team, that was all I wanted to focus on.

england focus team

Zara [Phillips] skis very well but is happy to take it easy around me. She will often wait for me when I'm on my snowboard but she can really whizz around if she needs to. I only snowboard if I'm on my own with Zara; if we're with other people who want to go a bit quicker, I will stick with skis.

zara waiting people

I think when you go skiing you have to buy into the après, so it has to be lively for me. There is such a unique atmosphere in ski resorts that it's all about having fun once you get off the mountain and, as a couple, we embrace that.

couple fun thinking

I started going on ski trips at senior school. I can't remember exactly where but we skied in the Tirol in Austria a couple of times and also went to Val d'Isère in France. When I was 15, rugby took over and there wasn't time to ski any more. I didn't ski again until I was 33.

senior couple school

I said I'll need to get my nose straightened one day so that I can breathe properly and that was translated by the press into me having it done.

one-day noses needs

I vary my days between skiing and snowboarding - I can go fast down pisted runs but still struggle in the bumps on a snowboard.

snowboarding struggle running

With ski jumping I reached a plateau and the more I did it the wo... by Mike Tindall

With ski jumping I reached a plateau and the more I did it the worse I got.

A French player, Sylvain Marconnet, broke his tibia skiing in 2007 and missed his home World Cup. For me the risk of breaking something versus the reward was never worth it.

risk player home

In 2011 I stopped playing rugby for England so during the Six Nations, which is on during February and March, I was able to grab a week's skiing. But I still had to take it pretty easy because I didn't want to get injured while I was playing for Gloucester. In 2013, when I retired fully from rugby, I finally had the chance to go a couple of times a season.

england able couple

I was an ambassador for Betway during the Rugby World Cup and at the moment I'm working as an ambassador for Artemis Investment Management. I also organised the first Rugby Aid in 2015. We had celebrities playing rugby against former England team players and raised a ton of money for Rugby For Heroes [a charity for former servicemen and women]. Only one celeb got crunched quite badly - Jaime Laing from Made in Chelsea ended up with cracked ribs.

team player hero

Who knew that wearing your Mrs.' hats would actually be a thing?

Brian O'Driscoll

Brett White

Brett Morris

Brett Finch

Braith Anasta

Anthony Watson