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England fans are positively revelling in the return of Manu Tuilagi
By Josh Raisey
England fans took to Twitter after England’s win over Ireland in Dublin on Saturday to show their delight at the return of Manu Tuilagi. The Leicester centre was making his first start in an England shirt since 2014, and there were many questions waiting to be answered.
Fans and pundits were speculating how the 27-year-old would fare playing alongside Henry Slade in addition to the slight positional change of moving to inside centre from his usual position of outside centre for the Tigers.
Many lingering questions seemed to be answered within one of the first exchanges of the match as the powerful centre received a long lineout throw from Jamie George, and crashed into Ireland’s Josh van der Flier. This not only created the platform for England’s blistering start to the match, whereby they scored fairly soon after, but set the tone for Tuilagi’s performance.
The number 12 was an immense physical presence in both attack and defence, meaning the Irish consistently struggled to make ground. The way he charged out of the line in the second half and careered into his opposite man Bundee Aki epitomised his performance and highlighted what he can bring to Eddie Jones’ side.
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The partnership with Slade was also another encouraging factor for the England side, as both players bring something different to the team. Tuilagi was not excessively used by Owen Farrell, as he also served as a decoy to draw in Irish defenders and create space for the likes of Slade and Elliot Daly outside him.
Of course, his performances and ability have rarely been questioned during his absence from the national set-up, but it has been persistent injuries and off-field misdemeanours that have curtailed his progress. Many fans will be hoping that he can put those problems behind him, as Saturday was a clear indication of what the future will be like with him in the squad.
This is what the fans had to say:
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Latest Comments
Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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