Mike Tindall has admitted that his off-field relationships with Springboks players were just as fraught as they were on the pitch during the early part of his career.<\/b><\/p>\n
The former England captain locked horns with South Africa several times and generally had the better of the battle.<\/p>\n
Some of those duels were ferocious, including the infamous 2002 clash when the Springboks<\/a> were slammed for their thuggishness in a 53-3 defeat, which saw Jannes Labuschagne red-carded for a late hit on Jonny Wilkinson.<\/p>\n That behaviour did not endear the Boks to Tindall who, when asked on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast how the relationship was when they stepped off the field, said: \u201cNot great, not in my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n That has very much changed for Tindall since then, however, with the 47-year-old stating: \u201cWhereas now I would class some South African players as my favourite guys off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n Robbie Fleck hate<\/p>\n One of the former Springboks he despised off the back of that 2002 clash was Robbie Fleck, but he now counts him as a good friend.<\/p>\n \u201cMy friendship group is slightly later, more with that 2010 ilk, your John Smit\u2019s, your [Schalk] Burger\u2019s and Robbie Fleck, but I hated Robbie Fleck to start off with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI really disliked him off the back of that 2002 game, which was just a bloodbath really, where he said some things I didn\u2019t really appreciate and then he suddenly came to Bath<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Such was Tindall\u2019s contempt for Fleck that he initially did not want to be at the same club as the South African when there was talk of him joining Bath.<\/p>\n \u201cI basically threatened to leave if they signed Robbie Fleck; it was that bad \u2013 I disliked him that much at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like, \u2018Okay we\u2019ll think about it\u2019, and then they just told me they had signed him and I was stuck with it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe then ended up becoming one of my closest mates.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him immediately when he got there, and he apologised, and he just explained the situation of the game and everything else and how he lost his head.\u201d<\/p>\n Tindall added: \u201cI then got to play with him and I saw what happened to him on the field, and how he gets red mist and goes absolutely doolally.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on the other side trying to control him and make him focus on the rugby while he\u2019s trying to chase someone around the field.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you watched him for two minutes chasing someone around the field, he didn\u2019t give a s*** about the rugby that was going on. But when he was on, he was an incredible player.<\/p>\n \u201cNow he\u2019s become a friend who I enjoy catching up with all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n England\u2019s tour to South Africa in 2000<\/p>\n