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Maro Itoje's Tuilagi verdict: 'When Manu is at his best he is an absolute monster'

Manu Tuilagi celebrates after scoring England's third try against an outclassed Ireland at Twickenham (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Maro Itoje has warned England’s World Cup rivals that Manu Tuilagi is an “absolute monster” after overcoming numerous injury problems to help his country destroy Ireland in record-breaking style 57-15 at Twickenham on Saturday.

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Try-scorer Tuilagi put in a man of the match performance in the No13 jersey normally worn by the injured Henry Slade. Playing outside the rekindled 10/12 axis of George Ford and Owen Farrell, the rejuvenated Leicester midfielder showed what England missed during the lengthy period he was kept out of the game by serious injuries.

Head coach Eddie Jones believes there is still 20 per cent more to come in terms of the Tuilagi’s fitness and Itoje is excited about what that could mean for England who are in a tough World Cup pool with France, Argentina, Tonga and USA.

Fresh from putting in one of his own most complete performances ever for England, the try-scoring Itoje said: “Manu is an awesome player, extremely talented and when he is at his best he is an absolute monster,” he told RugbyPass.

“It is great to have him in our side. I have played against him a couple of times at club level and I know how deadly he can be.”

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Itoje’s eminence helped turn the Ireland lineout into a disaster area and the lock paid tribute to the coaching of assistant Steve Borthwick and the input from back-up second rows Joe Launchbury and Charlie Ewels in helping to formulate the plan that resulted in the Lions forward and George Kruis, his fellow Saracens jumper, dominate this key area at Twickenham.

“It is a reflection of the work the lineout leaders have done throughout the week and we have a fantastic coach in Steve Borthwick,” said Itoje with less than a month now to go before the start of the World Cup in Japan. 

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“It was a lot better than last week (against Wales in Cardiff) and we just want to keep improving. Today was a good win but we’re not the finished article and there is so much more to come.

“This was Ireland’s first competitive game [they had beaten Italy on August 10], so we know they are not at their best. The challenge is for us to do this wherever we go and we are in a good place.”

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Reflecting on Tuilagi’s performance, coach Jones said: “Manu is in a good place and is making coffee for everyone. He is about 80 per cent fit and there is a bit to go and when he gets there he will be a handful. It will be scary to mark him.

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“That is a step up from the Wales game and there is a lot more in us. We got some good ball, we used this combination before and knew it would work. He can play 12 or 13 and Ireland were a bit soft in their defence and line speed.”

WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect to experience at the World Cup finals in Japan

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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