Gloucester and England rugby player Mike Tindall has been charged with drink-driving after being arrested on the M4 in Berkshire.

Mr Tindall, 29, had been bailed to report back to Thames Valley Police on Tuesday when he was charged.

A police spokesman said he was due before Reading magistrates on 14 May.

Gloucester Rugby said Mr Tindall could not comment while the case was active but that he “fully recognises the potential dangers of drink-driving”.

The club spokesman added: “[Mr Tindall] will issue a full statement when the case has been concluded.”

The boyfriend of Zara Phillips was driving a Range Rover Sport near Newbury on his way to Twickenham when he was stopped last March.

Leeds Carnegie’s relegation from the Guinness Premiership was sealed after defeat by Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Fijian Akapusi Qera flanker crossed for three tries and fly-half Ryan Lamb scored 19 points to keep the Cherry and Whites at the top of the table.

After Lamb converted Qera’s opening try, Leeds hit back with two Alberto di Bernardo penalties.

But Qera set up Olivier Azam just before the half-hour to turn the match decisively for the home side.

Qera drove over from an attacking line-out just seconds after Leeds replacement Vili Ma’asi was sin-binned for illegally holding back Will James.

And he grabbed his third try on 68 minutes, which Lamb converted, while replacement Darren Edwards got a consolation try at the end for Leeds as Gloucester eased off.

Leeds, whose place next year will be taken by Northampton Saints, lasted just a single season in the top flight.

But head coach Stuart Lancaster said they have learned a massive amount from the experience.

“The Premiership is moving on a yearly basis. We’ve learnt a lot of lessons both technically and tactically,” he said.

“You only have to look at Gloucester, with the strength they have in their squad, and it is a big gulf.

“National League One is an extremely tricky league to be in and we will just work hard and try to get out of it.”

Gloucester coach Dean Ryan paid tribute to the Yorkshire side’s fight.

“All we wanted to do was win and get a bonus point. It was difficult and Leeds deserve enormous credit,” he said.

“We had to change tactically at half-time to be more direct otherwise we would not get the bonus point.

“Leeds kept putting the onus back on us to play.”

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Gloucester: Walker; Balshaw, Simpson-Daniel, Tindall, Vainikolo; Lamb, Cooper; Dickinson, Azam, Nieto, James, Bortolami (capt), Strokosch, Qera, Delve.
Replacements: Titterrell, Forster, Brown, Buxton, Lawson, Paterson, Morgan.

Leeds: Hinton; Armstrong, Vickerman, Burrell, Holtby; Di Bernardo, Bedford; MacDonald, Parkes, Pala’amo, Bouza, Hooper (capt); Oakley, Clark, Lock.
Replacements: Hopcroft, Ma’asi, Lund, Myall, Edwards, Brooks, Goodridge.

Gloucester could recall England centre Mike Tindall for Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Munster.

The 2003 World Cup winner has been sidelined since suffering a bruised liver in England’s opening Six Nations defeat by Wales in early February.

Meanwhile, Munster coach Declan Kidney has named a full-strength 27-man squad for the game at Kingsholm.

Rua Tipoki, who has been a fitness concern because of a back injury, took a full part in training on Tuesday.

Speaking on Wednesday about Tindall’s possible involvement, coach Dean Ryan told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: “”He’s back training with us and it’s the first week he’s been back in terms of being around the side.

“It would be lovely to think he could be an option, but it’s a bit early in the week to say whether that’s possible or not.
“He has trained fully on Monday, Tuesday and today and if he reacts OK over the next day or so, he’s a possible.”

Munster are aiming to regain the trophy they won two seasons ago.

The winners of Saturday’s game will be away in the semi-finals against either Saracens - at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena - or the Ospreys - at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

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Gloucester: (tbc)

Munster: (from) John Hayes, Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley, Federico Pucciariello, Jerry Flannery, Frank Sheahan, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan, M O’Driscoll, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Anthony Foley, Niall Ronan, Shaun Payne, Denis Hurley, Doug Howlett, Kieran Lewis, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi, Brian Carney, Ian Dowling, Paul Warwick, Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary, Peter Stringer.

James Simpson-Daniel has been called into England’s training squad for the game with Scotland as Dave Strettle has failed to recover from a foot injury.

Harlequins winger Strettle suffered the injury in the opening Six Nations match against Wales and has now been ruled out of the rest of the tournament.

Simpson-Daniel, 25, has been in great form for Gloucester this season and could win an 11th England cap.

“Getting an opportunity to be involved with the squad is fantastic,” he said.

“I know I just have to knuckle down in the next few days and just do the best I can, which is what I have been doing for Gloucester.

“It is a bit strange considering I’m on a bit of a rugby hangover after our result against Harlequins on Saturday.”

Simpson-Daniel’s last appearance was against South Africa last summer.

Coach Brian Ashton will announce his team to face Scotland on Tuesday, but is not expected to make many changes to the side that beat France last time out.

But he has also added Harlequins scrum-half and England U20 captain Danny Care to the squad in place of dropped club colleague Andy Gomarsall.

Wasps flanker James Haskell keeps his place in the 30-man squad but will need intensive treatment on an ankle injury if he is to be involved at Murrayfield.

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Revised England training squad:

Backs: I Balshaw (Gloucester), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Wasps), M Cueto (Sale), T Flood (Newcastle), C Hodgson (Sale), P Hodgson (London Irish), J Noon (Newcastle), P Sackey (Wasps), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), M Tait (Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester), R Wigglesworth (Sale), J Wilkinson (Newcastle)

Forwards: S Borthwick (Bath), G Chuter (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), J Haskell (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester), M Lipman (Bath), L Mears (Bath), L Narraway (Gloucester), T Payne (Wasps), M Regan (Bristol), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale), M Stevens (Bath), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), J Worsley (Wasps)

Gloucester failed to fully capitalise on Leicester’s defeat by London Irish but remain top of the Premiership after defeat at West country rivals Bristol.

Tries by James Simpson-Daniel, Jack Adams and Anthony Allen, put the visitors in command at 17-9 ahead.

But Scott Linklater and Jason Hobson touched down to give the hosts a 23-17 half-time advantage.

Gloucester’s Willie Walker responded to two Jason Strange penalties with a pair himself, but Bristol held on to win.

The result takes Richard Hill’s side 12 points clear of second-from-bottom Worcester, while the narrow margin of Gloucester’s loss ensures they extend their lead over Leicester to two points courtesy of a bonus point.

With England trio Iain Balshaw, Lesley Vainikolo and Luke Narraway in their starting line-up, Dean Ryan’s men dominated the opening stages and posted two tries in as many minutes after Strange had landed two penalties.

Simpson-Daniel claimed the opener when he rounded off a scything midfield break by Adams, and the wing then turned provider through a kick and chase that ended with Adams touching down.

Uncharacteristically, Chris Paterson missed both conversion attempts but made no mistake after Allen intercepted a wayward pass by Strange and sprinted 50 metres to score.

At that stage Gloucester were in sight of a try bonus point but Bristol’s response stunned the league leaders.

 Resorting to brute force up front, Bristol hooker Linklater profited from a superb line-out take and drive by lock Roy Winters, while Strange’s conversion brought Bristol back to one point adrift.

Gloucester skipper Marco Bortolami was then sin-binned for pulling down a maul, giving Bristol enough time to take an unexpected half-time lead when prop Hobson ploughed over and Strange converted.

There was no immediate sign of a Gloucester recovery early in the second period after Strange and Paterson exchanged penalties.

Strange slotted a drop-goal 14 minutes from time before substitute Walker, who replaced a largely subdued Paterson, landed penalties in the 71st and 73rd minutes to reduce the gap but to no avail.