Tindall supports German drinking buddy Schrade

LONDON (AFP) –

Germany’s Dirk Schrade on King Artus competes in the dressage event of the eventing competition of the 2012 London Olympics at the Equestrian venue in Greenwich Park, London. Zara Phillips sat out the opening dressage session Saturday, the Team GB eventer making her Olympics bow on Sunday, but her husband Mike Tindall was on hand to support Schrade, one of his best mates.

Zara Phillips sat out the opening dressage session Saturday, the Team GB eventer making her Olympics bow on Sunday, but her husband Mike Tindall was on hand to support one of his best mates.

The former England rugby captain turned up at Greenwich Park to cheer on Germany’s Dirk Schrade, who got the favourites for eventing gold off to a good start posting an excellent score on his horse King Artus.

“I Know Dirk Schrade very well, and to be honest, he is one of my best drinking friends,” Tindall told SID, an AFP subsidiary.

“We meet all over the world,” he added. “Germany, England, and then we drink together.”

He had another motive for putting in an appearance on the first day of the London 2012 equestrian event, namely sussing out the opposition ahead of his wife’s appearance on Sunday.

But he said: “I am not only checking the other teams. I’m interested and the venue is brilliant.”

Despite his connection with Schrade he insisted he wanted only one team to prevail.

“I wish the Germans good luck. They have a tough team, but I hope Britain will win.”

On his wife’s prospects he said: “I don’t give her tips how to ride. Zara has a good chance. Perhaps she will get a medal. At home we don’t talk about sports.”

Tindall, a World Cup winner in 2003, won the last of his 75 caps during England’s controversial World Cup campaign in New Zealand last year, where he captained the side early in the tournament while Lewis Moody was injured.

Midfielder Tindall was the most senior player involved in a series of drunken antics during a squad night out in the resort town of Queenstown.

Leaked security footage showed Tindall, who married Phillips, Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter two months before the World Cup last year, being kissed on the head by a woman in a bar.