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'It's a whirlwind romance at the minute': Steve Diamond on whether Manu Tuilagi will extend his one-year Sale deal

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Sale boss Steve Diamond is hoping Manu Tuilagi will use his injury lay-off to come to a contract extension agreement with the Gallagher Premiership club following his arrival on a one-year deal from Leicester last July.    

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Tuilagi fell out with Tigers after they wanted all their squad to agree to make a temporary 25 per cent pay-cut permanent. He left the club along with Telusa Veainu (Stade Francais), Noel Reid (Agen), Greg Bateman (Dragons) and Kyle Eastmond (unattached) and was snapped up by Sale.

Since the restart of the 2019/20 campaign in August, Tuilagi featured in seven of the nine Gallagher Premiership and Premiership Cup matches Sale have played, but he now faces up to six months on the sidelines after suffering an achilles tear at Northampton on Tuesday. 

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That will rule him out of the league title run-in this month but other than that, coach Diamond doesn’t feel Tuilagi’s injury is a major loss to Sale as he would have been away over the winter and spring with England and would have only become available to Sale again next April following the completion of the 2021 Six Nations. 

In the meantime, Diamond will now hope to strike a deal with the 29-year-old that will keep the midfielder at the AJ Bell beyond his initially contracted twelve months. 

“It’s a whirlwind romance at the minute,” said Diamond about Sale’s new relationship with Tuilagi, who had spent his entire career until this summer at Leicester. “He’s a great lad. He loves it. He’s passionate. He’s as unlucky as Lood de Jager and as unlucky as Ben Curry. 

“I’ll be looking to chat with Manu, definitely. We had a very good shaking hands agreement. He is signed until next July and we’re in no rush to sit down and sort something out, and he’s cool with that. He’s happy. If we can come up with the numbers I think he’d be delighted to stay with us.

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“I don’t know (if he is a loss) because we wouldn’t have him until then, would we? Under the EPS regs and England playing, we wouldn’t get him back until after the Six Nations and then he needs his three weeks rest. 

“We’ll probably (now) get eight, nine, ten games out of him with a bit of luck which is what we would only have got anyhow. It’s England’s loss more so than us.

“He had been playing well for us. It was either him or Rohan van Rensburg on the wing on Tuesday night and I chose to put Rohan there, but I’d have put Manu out there this week (against Worcester on Sunday). He has been playing well for us, he trains well, doesn’t make many errors. He picks up everything we’re doing,” continued Diamond, who added he won’t seek out injury cover.  

“No. I’ve got both the James brothers, I have got Sam Hill, I have got Rohan van Rensburg, I have got Connor Doherty, so I have got enough centres to be fair.  

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O
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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