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Remembering Manu Tuilagi's magical 2012 performance against the All Blacks

By Sam Warlow
Remembering Manu Tuilagi's 2012 performance against the All Blacks. (Photos/Gettys Images)

With England set to host the All Blacks at Twickenham for the first time in over four years this weekend, we revisit their most famous victory over the world number one and a memorable ten minutes from Manu Tuilagi.

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Almost six years ago Stuart Lancaster and his England side proudly stamped a black mark on an otherwise perfect All Blacks campaign.

All Black fans will rue the 2012 Autumn clash with England, where a streak of 19 wins – with an away draw against Australia in between – was snapped as England dished out a record 38 points, winning by a record margin of 17, their biggest win over the All Blacks since 1936.

England fans are used to a long time between drinks when it comes to celebrating victory over the All Blacks at home. That 2012 victory was their first over the All Blacks in England for close to a decade, and they haven’t been able to topple the world number one in their five meetings since.

So what happened in 2012?

To set the scene, the All Blacks came into the match against England with an unbeaten record on the year and had just dismantled Scotland, Italy and Wales by a collective margin of 126-42. Meanwhile, England had just suffered two close home losses; a 20-14 defeat at the hands of the Wallabies and a tryless 16-15 loss against the Springboks in consecutive weeks.

Few favoured the English heading into the final fixture of the year as All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen trotted out what he called ‘his best possible team’, but explosive centre Manu Tuilagi, captain Chris Robshaw and a 20-year-old Owen Farrell were set on defying the odds.

A smirk from Tuilagi after a powerful rendition of Kapa O Pango from the All Blacks flared tensions early as England came out firing right from kickoff at Twickenham.

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England were hungry and set the tone defensively, eventually holding the All Blacks to just 3.6 metres per carry as regular metre-eaters like Ma’a Nonu were constantly trapped behind the gainline.

All Blacks first-five eighth Dan Carter had the first chance at points nearly 15 minutes into the match with a penalty in front from almost 40 metres back. Carter was unable to open the scoring, but his opposite Farrell wouldn’t make the same mistake when presented with his own opportunity.

Farrell’s first effort off the tee – a tough 25th minute penalty – finally broke an intense deadlock.

The young playmaker would continue to tack on points as he punished the All Blacks for a lack of discipline inside their own half and guided England to a 15-0 lead after another penalty, a drop-goal and penalties on either side of halftime.

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While the All Blacks ultimately ‘won’ the penalty count after conceding 13 penalties – one less than their opponents – it was the areas in which they gave them away that allowed England to take the early advantage.

In true All Black fashion Steve Hansen’s men punished England at the first hint of complacency. Two quick tries to Julian Savea and Kieran Read saw a 15 point lead whittled down to one with just over 30 minutes to play. The wall of white that had contained the All Blacks for close to an hour was finally starting to crack.

Enter, Manu Tuilagi – a young, game-changing centre at the peak of his powers.

After the English attack had slogged away and earned their penalties, only to have 50 minutes of grinding erased in five minutes by the All Blacks, Tuilagi took matters into his own hands.

The powerful midfielder – just 21 years old at the time – had hinted at a breakthrough with strong carries early in the match, and turned the game on its head completely with arguably the best ten minutes of his career.

With pressure mounting and tensions rising, England needed to score next after the swift All Black comeback. A bad defensive read from All Blacks centre Conrad Smith and a perfect delivery from Farrell opened the door for centre Brad Barritt to stroll through and break the defensive line. Streaking down the left wing, Barritt found Tuilagi outside him, who drew two men and flicked an offload back inside for England’s first try.

Just minutes later, Tuilagi was in on the action again. Used as a midfield battering ram from the outset, Tuilagi received the ball after a lineout and took on the line to beat Carter, Richie McCaw and Aaron Smith before shifting the ball to winger Chris Ashton who extended England’s lead back out to 11 after galloping away and scoring with a signature swan dive.

Tuilagi essentially sealed a famous victory in the 61st minute when he picked off a Kieran Read offload, turned upfield and won the 55 metre race to score a decisive try and extend the lead to an eventually insurmountable three scores.

The Leicester back finished as the game’s standout performer. He notched 96 metres with ball in hand, made three clean breaks and beat three defenders on his way to a man of the match effort.

Tuilagi and midfield partner Barritt combined for 20 tackles with a pair of misses between them as part of a staunch English defence that made 118 tackles with 86% accuracy.

A struggle to stay on the field – namely pectoral, knee and groins problems – has seen the potential-packed Tuilagi notch just 26 Test caps after his 2011 debut. He has failed to feature in an England shirt since March 2016, but the 27-year-old has the chance to repeat history after being named in Eddie Jones’ 25-man squad to take on the All Blacks this weekend.

English fans will be hoping to see that same smirk should he face the haka on Saturday afternoon, eagerly waiting for his game-breaking ability to turn the tables once again.

In other news:

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Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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