'He can do it, definitely': The added dimension Manu Tuilagi craves
It will be at next Thursday’s latest Guinness Six Nations team announcement when England officially confirm they are rolling the dice again at midfield. The anticipated return of the fit-again Manu Tuilagi to the starting line-up is poised to be the ninth match in succession that Eddie Jones will have named a different England centre partnership from one match to the next.
Not since Owen Farrell and Henry Slade were chosen to face France last March – two weeks after they had started together in the midfield away to Wales – have England named the same players as their 12/13 axis. It’s an intriguing lack of selection consistency. Look at how in recent Six Nations weeks England went from a Slade-Elliot Daly selection at Murrayfield to Slade-Joe Marchant at Stadio Olimpico.
This state of flux, though, has been a regular occurrence since the 2019 World Cup. Across the 21 games that England have played since then, Jones has given starts to eight different midfield players and deployed eleven different centre partnerships.
Farrell-Slade has been the busiest combo, that duo rolled out as the starting 12/13 on six occasions, but the return to fitness of Tuilagi has now created the possibility of Jones placing his trust again in the Tuilagi-Slade partnership.
It was used in the recent Autumn Nations Series opener versus Tonga and reprised two weeks later for the clash versus the Springboks in which Tuilagi lasted just seven minutes, the midfield powerhouse injuring his hamstring when diving in at the corner to score.
Eleven weeks were needed for Tuilagi to get himself right and after two Gallagher Premiership appearances for Sale, he was this past week called into the 25-strong England squad that got through a fallow week’s training in London ahead of next weekend’s round three renewal of the Six Nations with the home fixture against Wales.
The Chief, as he is known, returned to the international set-up another few kilos lighter. This season he has gone from 110kg to 107 and is now down to 103 in an attempt to lighten the load he carries into battle and better guard against the type of injuries that have been the bane of his career.
Set to turn 31 in May, the disappointing fact of Tuilagi’s stellar reputation is that he has played just 45 Test games for England when the chances are he would easily be a Test centurion by now if his body didn’t repeatedly break down on him.
Keeping Manu fit is a Pythagoras-type theorem that his Sale boss Alex Sanderson has deeply invested in since coming to the throne in Manchester 13 months ago at a time when Tuilagi was in the foothills of his rehab from the ACL injury suffered four months earlier.
That particular layoff mothballed him until late May and such are the lengths that Sale have gone to keep the midfielder on his feet ahead of his latest comeback that they made use of the England GPS system so they could monitor Tuilagi in the same way that he is watched over when on national team duty in teams of his training loading and all the rest of the science involved.
“If anything we want to be more cautious and careful with his increasing loading,” explained club boss Sanderson about the thinking surrounding a Tuilagi return that saw him play 30 minutes as a sub at Harlequins followed by a 50-minute start in the Sale midfield at home to Worcester before he hooked up with England in London.
“There are very few people who can step up to that (Test) level without having trained up to it. It’s like when you wake up one day and say, ‘I am going to go and win the Olympics’. Firstly you have got to be genetically predisposed and then you have got to put years in training, haven’t you? He has – but he still needs that incremental increase in training week in week out so he can just train at that level otherwise he will break down.”
You’d think that a player who has only featured in just five of the 21 England games since the last World Cup wouldn’t be someone worth investing so much faith in given the high risk that he could quickly break down again, but the physical uniqueness of Tuilagi ensures he remains a gold standard player who is a Jones must-pick.
Look at the lengths the England coach went to for the mid-November series game against Australia, picking Tuilagi for a first start on the wing since 2014 in order to accommodate Farrell alongside Slade after the skipper had overcome the false-positive saga from the previous weekend versus the Tongans.
“He is certainly unique,” agreed Sanderson when asked about the Tuilagi brand of physicality that England are set to unleash against the Welsh. “Ollie Lawrence has got that bit about him, hasn’t he? There is the odd forward. (Sam) Simmonds, he’s probably a bit quicker, ain’t he, but not quite as powerful. There is no one with the same punch to power ratio that Manu has got.”
The enduring perception of Tuilagi is that he is essentially just a big lump but that is a description that Sanderson doesn’t entertain. Yes, he is physical but there is so much more to his game. “We had that conversation, me and him, when I first turned up here about where he wanted to take his game so he can keep progressing and that was the one area that he identified that he wanted to improve.
“As a player, you look to work on the strengths, not the weaknesses. You look to work on the things that give them that X-factor and so he has focused on those strengths for a long time with respect to how powerful he is and just a gain line toy if you like on either side of the ball.
“His focus with us, he has been sat in the attack meetings with us, in the attack leaders group as well, to try and progress that side of his game so he is able to, look he can give 20-metre passes but it is more those balls right at the line where he can just, because people suck into him, give that short pass, that timing of a short pass which Brad Barritt was really good at that would give an extra dimension.
“He can do it, definitely. He is skilful enough. It’s just getting out of that bracket that everyone has seemingly labelled him in. It probably shows with his weight loss as well. If it was just about him breaking the gain line he’d probably stay a bit heavier, but he is keen to show that he is more than just that.”
Brain more than brawn then is something Sanderson wants rugby fans to really wake up to when discussing the merits of Tuilagi? “Yeah, definitely. People don’t give him credit. People have never given him credit for that because he is a very straight, simple talking individual so he won’t wax lyrical about the intricacies of the game.
“He will just say it as it is but you can’t misconstrue that for lack of rugby intelligence. He is an expert twice over really at his age at the moment because he has been playing at the highest level from a very early age.”
August 2011 was the date of Tuilagi’s Test debut. Eleven years later, expect February 2022 to be the month that marks his latest return to the England XV fold.
ENGLAND’S MIDFIELD SINCE WORLD CUP 2019
PLAYED: 21 matches; USED: 11 different midfield partnerships; SELECTED: 8 different players.
PARTNERSHIPS: Farrell-Slade (6), Farrell-Tuilagi (3), Slade-Lawrence (2), Lawrence-Slade (2), Tuilagi-Slade (2), Farrell-Joseph (1), Slade-Joseph (1), Farrell-Lawrence (1), Kelly-Slade (1), Slade-Daly (1), Slade-Marchant (1).
APPEARANCES: Slade (16), Farrell (11), Lawrence (5), Tuilagi (5), Joseph (2), Daly (1), Kelly (1), Marchant (1).
Comments on RugbyPass
I certainly don’t miss drinking beers at 8am in the morning watching rugby games being played in NZ.
1 Go to commentsThis looks like a damage limitation exercise for Wales, keeping back some of their more effective players for the last 20/25 minutes to try and counter England’s fresh legs so the Red Roses don’t rack up a big score.
1 Go to commentsVery unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
2 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to commentsI had not considered this topic like this at all, brilliant read. I had been looking at his record at the Waratahs and thought it odd the Crusaders appointed him, then couple that with all that experience and talent departing and boom. They’ve got some great talent developing though, and in all honesty I don’t think anyone would be over confident taking them on in a playoff match, no matter how poor the first half of their season was. I think they can pull a game out of their ass when it counts.
2 Go to commentsNot a bad list but not Porecki and not Donaldson. Not because they are Tahs, or Ex Tahs, they are just not good enough. Edmed should be ahead. Far more potential. Wilson should be 8 and Valentini 6. Wilson needs to be told by his father and his coach, stop bloody running in to brick wall defence. You’re not playing under the genius Thorn any more. He’s a fantastic angle runner. The young new 8 from the Brumbies looks really good too. The Lonegrans are just too small for international rugby as is Paisami, as is Hamish Stewart at 12. Both great at Super Rugby level. Stewart could have been a great 10 if not for Brad Thorn. Uru should be there and so should Tupou. Tupou just needs good Australian coaching which he hasn’t been getting. I don’t think Schmidt will excite him.
3 Go to commentsIf he wants to come back then he should. He will be a major asset to the younger locks and could easily be played as an impact player off the bench coming on in the last 30. He is fit, strong and capable and has all the experience to make up for any loss in physical prowess. He could also be brought back with a view to coaching within the structures one day. Duane Vermeulen played until he was 37 or 38. He is now a roaming coach within the South African coaching structures. He was valuable in the last world cup and has been a major influence on Jasper Wiese and other young players which has helped and accelerated their development and growth. Whitelock could do the exact same thing for NZ
10 Go to commentsBrett Excellent words… finally someone (other than DC) has noted that Hanigan is very hard and very good at doing what Backrow should do… his performance via the Drua sauna was quite daunting for those on the other side… very high tackle count… carries with good end result… constant threat to make a good 20-25 meters with those long legs… providing his mass effectively to crunching the Drua pack… Finally he is returning to quality form… way to much injury time over the last 2 years… smart-strong-competent in his skills… caught every lineout throw aimed at him and delivered clean pass to whoever was down below… and he worked hard for the whole 80 minutes… Ned has to be in the top 5 for backrow honors… He knows what is required as he has been there before…
20 Go to commentsI think Sam Whitelock should not touch a return with a bargepole. He went out on a high, playing in the RWC Final. He would be coming back into a team that will be weaker than last years, and might even be struggling to win games, especially against the Boks. Stay in France, enjoy another year with Pau, playing alongside his brother.
10 Go to commentsRyan Coxon has been very impressive considering he was signed by WF as injury cover whilst Uru has been a standout for QR, surprised neither of those mentioned
3 Go to comments