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'He can do it, definitely': The added dimension Manu Tuilagi craves

Manu Tuilagi (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

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. 

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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. 

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We’re joined by England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie this week as the Six Nations squads take a break after two rounds of action. We hear from the Exeter Hooker about his journey with England and the Lions, his relationship with Eddie Jones and of course that volleyball moment in Edinburgh during the Calcutta Cup. Max and Ryan give their thoughts on the weekend battles in Cardiff, Paris and Rome, pick their team of the week and look forward to the rest of the tournament.

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.    

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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.

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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.

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“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). 

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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