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The early favourite to sign Manu Tuilagi, and why Gatland may have a say in it

Manu Tuilagi

Since the confirmation of the departure of Manu Tuilagi from Leicester Tigers, speculation has been rife as to which club the England centre will land at.

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Tuilagi is one of six high profile players to reject new, cut-price contracts with the Premiership side and the club confirmed his departure last night. The squad were asked to accept reduced wages by way of new deals, albeit with an inbuilt ‘mechanism through which a proportion of forgone earnings could be reclaimed when the Club returns to profitability.’ Tuilagi, Noel Reid, Kyle Eastmond, Greg Bateman, Telusa Veainu and unofficially Jordan Taufua will all depart, all failed to sign new contracts.

This leaves the six clubless at an awkward time of the season. The vast majority of the northern hemisphere clubs having wrapped up their recruitment, and combined with tightened purse strings thanks to the pandemic, it’s likely all will have to take a hit should they find a club willing to take them.

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Tuilagi, however, is an exceptional case and his headline-grabbing departure will have pricked ears and chequebooks around the globe. In the 24 hours since it became official, the blockbusting back has been linked with Steve Diamond’s Sale Sharks, Top 14 giants Racing 92, nouveau riche ProD2 side Beziers and Canadian Rugby League newcomers Toronto Wolfpack.

Yet RugbyPass understands that Toulouse are the early favourites to sign the Leicester star. The aristocrats of French rugby have enjoyed a revival in the last two seasons but their recruitment ahead of season 2020/21 has been relatively modest.  Tuilagi could be a perfect fit in a midfield that includes French international Sofiane Guitoune and as well as Lucas Tauzin, Pita Aki and Pierre Fouyssac.

For all that, it could be external factors that put a stop to Tuilagi leaving England. It’s being widely reported that England head coach Eddie Jones is set on the Samoan born centre staying in England, where he can remain available for Test selection. The 29-year-old will be 32 by the next Rugby World Cup, and Jones’ likely still harbours designs on bringing him to the tournament.

Leaving Jones aside, Warren Gatland and the British and Irish Lions may too have a significant impact on his staying in England, for at least another season. While playing in the Home Nations is not a technical stipulation for Lions inclusion, Gatland selection blessing may be needed if Tuilagi does choose the Top 14.

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Clearly, if Tuilagi isn’t playing international rugby in the lead up to the tour of South Africa, it may not play well with Gatland, who will likely view the Guinness Six Nations as the ultimate testing ground ahead of the celebrated tour.

However, if the centre is getting regular game time with Stade Toulousain at the right end of the Top 14 and Heineken Champions Cup, Chiefs head Gatland might be convinced go with the Tuilagi, who won a Test cap in the 2013 tour of Australia and who was a star of England’s 2020 Six Nations tournament and Rugby World Cup run in Japan in 2019.

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Flankly 52 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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