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England rocked by the news that Manu Tuilagi is OUT of Wales game

(Photo by PA)

England have been dealt a massive blow less than 48 hours out from their Guinness Six Nations match versus Wales on Saturday as it has been confirmed that Manu Tuilagi will now not take any part in the match. 

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The Sale midfielder had been chosen as the England No12 when Eddie Jones named his team at 11:30am on Thursday but he was scratched from the side at 7:45pm that evening, resulting in the recall of the axed Joe Marchant to the squad.

An RFU statement read: “England’s Manu Tuilagi is unavailable to play in this weekend’s Guinness Six Nations game against Wales due to injury. It was confirmed after a scan on Thursday afternoon, following training, that Tuilagi has suffered a low-grade hamstring injury.

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“Joe Marchant has been recalled and will train with the squad tomorrow [Friday] at the Honda England Rugby Performance Centre at Pennyhill Park. The updated team will be confirmed on match day [Saturday].”

Cut from the England squad on Tuesday evening when it was reduced from 35 to 25, Marchant, a starter against both Scotland and Italy, was named on the wing for Harlequins in their Gallagher Premiership game on Friday night at Worcester but he has now been hooked from taking part in that match.

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Tuilagi missed the opening two matches of the 2022 Guinness Six Nations in Edinburgh and Rome due to a hamstring injury but was recalled to the England squad having proven his fitness with two recent appearances for Sale. He was sidelined for eleven weeks after he was hurt when scoring against the Springboks in November but was restored to the England midfield on Thursday at the expense of Marchant.

Tuilagi was supposed to wear the No12 shirt on Saturday with Henry Slade shifting out to No13, but England will now have to rejig their team. They fielded a midfield partnership of Slade/Marchant in Rome, having selected Slade with Elliot Daly in the round one loss at Scotland.

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“Manu is a gain line accumulator,” enthused Jones at his media briefing after the inclusion of Tuilagi was one of four changes from the XV that started the win over Italy. “He wins the gain line pretty consistently, he draws defenders in which creates space for other options and he does that better than anyone else in the world when he is at full tilt and we are planning for him to be full tilt on Saturday.”

Tuilagi’s Sale boss Alex Sanderson had spoken last week about the lengths the club and England had gone to so that the midfield powerhouse could return to the international rugby fold. “If anything we want to be more cautious and careful with his increasing loading,” explained Sanderson about the Tuilagi club 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.

“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.

We borrowed the (England) GPS over the last two weeks and we have given them what our recommendations are for his loading and what works for him in terms of treatment to keep him mobile and fresh.

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“I haven’t been in the job long but even with the experience back at Saracens, I haven’t been aware of anything this collaborative in the past over from player. I am really confident we are going to get it right.”

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SK 35 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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