England's behaviour 'unacceptable'

Members of the English rugby team - seen here partying at the Altitude Bar in Queenstown - are showing a lack of respect, according to England rugby great Jeremy Guscott. Photo / AP

England rugby great Jeremy Guscott says some England players have shown a "lack of respect" at the Rugby World Cup.

Three players have been reprimanded for their lewd comments to a young female hotel worker and captain Mike Tindall has been forced to apologise for not telling the truth about his night of cavorting with a blonde woman in Queenstown.

"[England manager] Martin Johnson's got a few kids that aren't acting as though they're playing for England, or at a World Cup," Guscott, a former England and Lions star, told BBC Sport overnight.

"You're representing your country, you've got the hopes and dreams of millions of rugby supporters back home and all they're hearing is stories of messing about and drinking. It's completely unacceptable," he said.

Footage from two Queenstown bars has emerged that show Tindall, who is married to the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips, enjoying a night out with a woman. Sources for Ms Phillips and Tindall, who were married only two months ago, say the woman is a friend of the couple but it has also been suggested she is an old girlfriend of Tindall.

No sooner than that scandal had died down, it was revealed that Johnson had to reprimand three of his squad - James Haskell, Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley - for their treatment of a female hotel worker in Dunedin.

Guscott, who won 65 England caps said: "The last thing Johnson wants is to be sat at a press conference having to fire-fight questions from journalists."

The players had to understand that they were representing their country and the stories of "messing about and drinking" were completely unacceptable.

"This is a Rugby World Cup. If you think you're living in a goldfish bowl wait until the 2015 Rugby World Cup [in England]. They'll be under a microscope then," he said.

Guscott was in the same England team as Johnson for the 1999 World Cup and a member of the England squad that lost to Australia in the 1991 World Cup.

Former England captain and manager Roger Uttley said there had been "embarrassing indiscipline on and off the field for Martin Johnson".

"I'm sure he's got a grip of these guys and laid down what responsibilities they have as individuals, and as a team who are representing England," he told the BBC.

"As a former England player I'm embarrassed that we're seen in this light - an archetypal stereotype of a rugby player that used to be the case but no longer should be."

But England wing Mark Cueto believed the incidents involving his teammates had been blown out of proportion.

"If the boys can't go out and have a few beers then it is a sad world that we live in," he told the BBC.