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Tindall vs Tuilagi: 'Pretty much different to any player in the world'

(Graphic by BT Sport)

Gallagher Premiership players have had their say on whether Mike Tindall or Manu Tuilagi should be selected on the BT Sport Immortals XV team. The sports broadcaster has been getting fans to select their Immortals XV before the selection culminates in a round-table debate show on May 27 featuring Ugo Monye, Lawrence Dallaglio, Ben Kay and Austin Healey.

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Marcos Ayerza, Schalk Brits, Martin Castrogiovanni, Maro Itoje, Martin Johnson, Joe Worsley, Neil Back, Dallaglio, Danny Care, Jonny Wilkinson, Chris Ashton and Will Greenwood have all topped fan polls in recent days, and BT Sport have now added the views of numerous high-profile players to the debate over who should wear the No13 shirt.

George Ford, who has played with Tuilagi for England, Sale and Leicester, had no hesitation in picking his teammate over the 2003 Rugby World Cup winner. “Manu. Yeah, Manu,” enthused Ford in footage filmed at Twickenham, the ground that will host the 2023 Premiership final between Sale and Saracens.

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“I have been lucky enough to play with him, so I obviously understand what it is like to play with him. There is not many players like him in the world who can consistently do what he does.”

Alex Goode, the Saracens full-back who will be coming up against Tuilagi in the showpiece final on Saturday week, added: “I have got a lot of time for Mike. But what Manu is able to do is pretty much different to any player in the world and when he is at his best you see a different England. When England doesn’t have him it’s remarkable. Yeah, I think Manu.”

Scrum-half Care, who saw off the challenge of Richard Wigglesworth and Ben Youngs in his online poll, showed his age by remembering the time when Tuilagi and Tindall were England teammates from just before the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. “They were great together as a combination,” he recalled.

“We caught a little bit of that at the back end of Mike’s England career and Manu came in, they played a little bit together. That would be a hell of a combination now if you could get paired again. I’d just stick them together.”

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Tindall did garner support from Bristol skipper Steven Luatua, the former All Blacks flanker. “It’s a difficult one as the prime old-timers, they won the World Cup… in that case, I’m going to go for the proven record, I’m going to go for Mike.”

However, current England players Tommy Freeman and Jamie George sided with Tuilagi. “He’s looking at me, so Tuilagi,” quipped Freeman before George added: “Manu, there’s no one else.”


BT Sport’s Premiership Immortals celebrates the greatest players in the history of Premiership Rugby. From May 4 until the Premiership final on May 27, fans will be able to have their say on who they think deserves to have a spot in the competition’s all-time team. Cast your vote btsport.com/immortals 

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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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