Rugby:Mike Tindall has been reinstated in England's elite player squad and had a €29,000 fine reduced to €17,500 after an appeal against the punishment meted out for his off-field World Cup behaviour.

The England and Gloucester centre appealed the original Rugby Football Union punishment which saw him kicked out of the squad and hit with a sizeable fine.

But Tindall, whose appeal was heard by acting RFU chief executive Martyn Thomas, received backing from the Rugby Players’ Association, with many people feeling he had been a scapegoat for England’s World Cup woes in New Zealand, and the RFU tonight confirmed his appeal had been successful to a large extent.

A statement from the RFU read: “Mike Tindall’s fine for breaches of the England elite player squad agreement during the 2011 Rugby World Cup has been reduced from £25,000 to £15,000 and he has been reinstated into the England Elite Player Squad.”