The rather depressing statistics around Manu Tuilagi's battle for fitness
Whether you’re of a superstitious bent or not, it’s hard not to see Manu Tuilagi as a cursed rugby player.
Bedevilled by injury, Tuilagi’s latest set back- which came after just seven minutes on the field against Wasps at Welford Road – reads like the latest line in a rather unpleasant and nauseatingly repetitive joke.
The 26-year-old appears to have become a glass man, incapable of playing the game for any length of time. Watching the stricken centre visibly upset on the bench was a pitiful sight.
His playing statistics suggest a patchwork career of sporadic games in between bouts of injury and the occasional suspension. Sunday’s game against Wasps was his eighth consecutive start for Tigers, his longest string of games in five years.
He has made just 29 appearances for Leicester Tigers in the last four seasons, which works out at slightly over 7 appearances a season.
Since making his debut for Tigers in 2010, he has made 103 appearances, averaging a little under 13 appearances a season across all competitions.
In fact his early years at Tigers were relatively robust ones. He played 20 times in the Premiership and 4 times in the then Heineken Cup in his first season (2010/11).
His second season was less fruitful – 10 Aviva Premiership and two European starts were his return for 2011/12.
Internationally he won 7 caps for England and featured heavily in the 2011 RWC.
A hamstring problem ruled him out of two Six Nations games in 2012, but he did go on to make 10 appearances for England during the year.
In 2012/13 things picked up for Leicester too. He played 21 times across both club competitions. However, 2013 took a turn for the worse on the injuries front.
His first major injury came when he tore a pectoral muscle at the start of 2013/14 season, which would rule him out for 6 months. He did manage four Six Nations games, 9 Premiership games and one game in Europe that season.
2014/15 was a grim season for the Samoan born centre. A minor groin injury in September reoccurred just a month later and he wouldn’t play again until 15 months later in 2016.
Upon return he made 8 appearances in the Premiership and 4 in Europe. A knee injury in the ECPR semi-final against Racing in April 2016 was followed by a groin strain in his comeback match in the Premiership semi-final against Saracens. It ruled him out of England’s tour to Australia.
Across 2016 Tuilagi made just one start for England and it was the last time he has worn the Red Rose.
2016/17 wasn’t much brighter, with just 5 Premiership appearances and two European outings for his club. Again a groin injury waylaid his 110kg frame in the opening match of the season, before a knee injury in January would rule him out for a further 6 months.
2017/18 opened in by now classic Tuilagi style. He strained the meniscus in his left knee during Leicester’s Premiership opener against Bath, before seeing a ‘witch doctor’ in a rather desperate bid to rid himself of his injury woes.
After stringing an at this stage miraculous eight games back to back, it looks like the blockbusting centre has again injured a pectoral muscle.
He has played 26 times for England and once for the British and Irish Lions, a poor return for one of the most gifted rugby players to don an England jersey.
Comments on RugbyPass
The author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
141 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
141 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
141 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
141 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
141 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
141 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
141 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
141 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
141 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
141 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
141 Go to commentsHo hum.
141 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
141 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
141 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
141 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
141 Go to comments