Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Sale poised to schmooze Manu Tuilagi after 'insulting' first offer

(Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Alex Sanderson is optimistic that negotiations with Manu Tuilagi this Wednesday will finally sway the England midfielder into committing his future to Sale beyond the end of this season. The Sharks director of rugby is poised to present the soon-to-be 32-year-old with a significantly improved contract offer that he hopes will be enough to convince their former marquee salary cap player to stay on in Manchester rather than take up more lucrative offers in France and Japan.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dropped at the start of the recent Guinness Six Nations and then unavailable for England selection following a red card while on mid-February duty with Sale, Tuilagi still managed to work his way back into the Test-level fold and was a starter in the round five match away to Ireland in Dublin on March 18.

Tuilagi has since returned to club training at Sale ahead of this Saturday’s European Challenge Cup round of 16 assignment at Cardiff and Sanderson is hoping that a midweek lunch in Lymm will now provide the perfect backdrop towards successfully convincing his in-demand player that his club future is best served by remaining on with the Sharks.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

It was the summer of 2020 when the initial pandemic salary cuts across the Premiership resulted in Sale swooping for Tuilagi on a one-year deal after he took umbrage with what was going on at Leicester. Those negotiations happened on Steve Diamond’s watch but within three months of Sanderson becoming director of rugby, hands were shaken with Tuilagi in April 2021 on a two-year extension.

Those talks have now come around again with that deal set to expire, but under different circumstances as the across-the-league salary cap reduction now only allows clubs to have just one and not two marquee players. It left Sale originally going in with what Sanderson now describes as an “insulting” offer, but alterations in the club’s planning for 2023/24 will now see the DoR table a much better deal when the pair meet this Wednesday in a restaurant in a Cheshire market town.

Related

“We want him, he wants to stay,” began Sanderson. “We had no money, then we had a bit of money, now we have got twice as much money than we did have. I’m going to Lymm tomorrow to sit down with him to see if it’s enough. I know he wants to stay, so this is just a question of whether his family can survive on it and how much he is willing to sacrifice. I guess I will be buying lunch.”

Asked if there was a specific date for a decision to be taken one way or another, Sanderson added: “Not a deadline so to speak, as soon as possible if we can. I would say the next couple of weeks, and he’d want it wrapped up as well.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The DoR then went into the mechanics of how Sale now have the ability to offer a much-improved deal compared to their opening gambit earlier this season. “First off, there was the necessity for what the squad needs long term, so we needed a robust youngish centre that fitted in with the demographic of the squad and there is money for that position and having Manu allied to that.

“He was a marquee player, let’s not forget, so if you take him out of a marquee status, they go off what his previous three years’ salary was. That is taken into account on average so if we were to offer him what we had left in the salary cap at that time for prediction for next year with everyone staying on, with everyone who was contracted at that point in time wanting to stay on, it was to the tune of around £70,000, something like that, but that equated out to be like £250,000, £300,000.

“And even then, why would he take £70,000 when he is being offered when he has been rumoured to be offered £400,000 or whatever? So, it’s insulting that, innit? Insulting to offer someone that, but the effect of the cap was far too great, and he could see all of that. But like I say, these things if you have a will and want for them, they have a way of kind of finding a way.

“So there has been a bit of movement in terms of who we are able to maintain next year that has freed more money up in the cap as well as injury dispensation that allows further money to be released into the cap which has meant we have been able to go back to him with a significantly higher offer than what we were six, seven months ago.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We knew this could happen because it does shift monies around as people move on or retire early and we haven’t released who those people are, so I have to keep all that information but there are probably two people who it is their choice not to continue and that has freed up more money again.

“As a result, we can go back to Manu who has stayed off signing a contract and say, ‘Look, thanks for your patience here, this was always coming your way, this is what it looks like now’. Now it is still less than he is going to get offered somewhere else, it is still less. He knows that. I have been honest with him about that so we will just see if it is enough.

“It is his turn, but I will pay. We don’t get to do it often. There is a decent restaurant in Lymm, they do Tomahawk steaks… It’s a Wednesday and no doubt we will have a glass of wine because that is religious, breaking bread and all of that. We will have our glass of wine and a decent steak and see how we go.”

Tuilagi, in the eyes of Sanderson, has been going great on the back of his March involvement with England following a campaign that saw him excluded from the initial two match day 23s versus Scotland and Italy and then become unavailable versus Wales due to a red-carded tackle when Sale visited Northampton.

“He has been brilliant this week in terms of his training, how sharp he has looked. The two months that he has spent in camp have really sharpened him up, high intensity of training, getting through those weeks what Steve has been asking of him – they have been going hard every day.

“They saw that in his ability. He has always been good in his carrying but they are trying to increase the frequency of his carries, his work rate, he just looked a little bit fit and a little bit sharp through contact. Even though we haven’t used him and haven’t been able to play him, there is always a silver lining, and that silver lining is that he has come back fresh, fit and raring to go.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

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
TRENDING
TRENDING 'World-class finisher' offers All Blacks selection solution Mark Tele'a scores a double at Allianz Stadium
Search