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Steve Diamond reveals Manu Tuilagi was being chased by 'three or four' clubs

Manu Tuilagi /Getty Images

Sale Sharks boss Steve Diamond today revealed “three or four” clubs had tried to sign Manu Tuilagi. The England international has joined the Sharks on the same financial terms as the rest of the squad, who have agreed temporary 25 per cent pay cuts.

Tuilagi has signed a deal which means he can help second-placed Sale’s bid for the Gallagher Premiership title when the current campaign restarts next month, and will also be part of the club for the 2020-21 season, which could begin as soon as November.

By staying in England rather than opting for a deal in France or Japan, Tuilagi also remains available to Eddie Jones, the England head coach, and for the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa next year.

Tuilagi was one of five Leicester players who refused to sign new reduced-term contracts with the club, including Kyle Eastmond, Greg Bateman, Noel Reid and Telusa Veainu. Tuilagi has become the third to find a new club with Veainu off to Stade Francais while Reid is set to join Agen.

A week ago Diamond made it clear that while Sale were not, at that point, talking to Tuilagi, they would have room in their salary cap to accommodate the player.

He said: “If players do become available of a high calibre as long as we are not contravening any regulations then we will look at other players. Financially we would be able to do that.”

First contact with Tuilagi’s agent was made last week and discussions with the player and Leicester took place on Friday which confirmed the England centre was a free agent and could sign for a rival Premiership outfit.

Diamond told RugbyPass today he would like Tuilagi to stay longer, stating: “We made sure Manu was a free agent – which he was – and there were three or four other clubs who were talking to him, including abroad, and I just painted a picture for him of the next 12 months and they are really important to Sale and him with his England and Lions career.

“I said let’s get through the year and not look any further and see where we are. Let’s be honest, if a big money offer came after the Lions tour when he is 30 he might take that.

“We have also talked about extending this deal and Manu is a quiet lad and he just wants to play and we will look after him.

“He will fit like a hand in glove with our lot and the first people to welcome him were Jono Ross, the skipper, Marland Yard and Denny Solomona.”

Three years ago Solomona and Tuilagi were sent home from a pre-season England training camp by a furious Eddie Jones following a drunken night out.

“Manu and Denny have a bit of a reputation from then and I told them they can only go to those bars in future if I get an invite!” added Diamond.

“Manu signed for us at 10am today and will link up with the squad tomorrow although we will run him through the COVID-19 testing protocols.

“I said to the squad as a whole that we have been through the dark times of everyone taking a pay cut, but that doesn’t stop us bringing people in and players like Manu don’t come around very often.

“Manu has come in on the same terms as the rest of the squad.”

Diamond knows the signing of Tuilagi will attract flak given the number of high-profile South African players brought in, headed by World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager, but he will turn a deaf ear to the criticism.

“Other clubs needs to worry about themselves, and in the days of austerity when I had to operate on 50 per cent of what everyone else (was spending) nobody cared that they were hand-picking (players) from my academy when they were 22-years-old,” he said.

“The reason I didn’t confirm anything about Manu was until 10 am this morning I hadn’t had the signed document.

“I told him to have a think about things over the weekend and to see me at 8.30am and he texted me a few things, like where to live, and turned up and signed. He will view a couple of houses and come back tomorrow.”

Diamond revealed he contacted his other midfield players to confirm they would be joined by Tuilagi and reported the response was a collective “brilliant” from Sam Hill, who joined from Exeter, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and the James brothers Luke and Sam.

Diamond added: “I spoke to the senior playing group and told them this is what I was doing and then rang the players in that position out of politeness. The response was brilliant.

“If we can attempt to win something over the next 12 months then all that we have gone through will be worthwhile.

“Over the next three months it will be the team that manages the rest best that will win it.

“We have to cater for all circumstances and we might get a case of COVID-19. I look at a lot of football and before the shutdown Leicester City were the best team after Liverpool but haven’t played well since they came back and I don’t want be in that situation.”

Sale will return to action after the lockdown against Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop on August 14 in a game that was already slated for television coverage.

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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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