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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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    Tommy B. 1 hour ago
    Rassie Erasmus wades into heated debate over Jaden Hendrikse antics

    🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

    I’ll go with one more because it’s so funny but then I must stop. There’s only so long you can talk to the nutter on the bus.

    There is no legal impediment in the GFA to ANY form of border. It’s mentioned very briefly and ambiguously but even then there’s a caveat ‘if the security situation permits’ which is decided by the British government as the border is an internationally, UN recognised formal border between sovereign states. Now, you can argue that this is because it was assumed it would always be in the EU context - but we all know the issue with ‘assumption’. As to your hilarious drivel about what you think is in the GFA, you clearly haven’t read it or at best not understood it. There are still 1,580 British Army troops in NI. The legal status of NI as part of the UK is unchanged.

    So, there was a problem for those that wanted to use the border to complicate any future British government changing regulations and trade arrangements through domestic legislation. Hence ‘hard border’ became ANYTHING that wasn’t a totally open border.

    This allowed the EU and their fanatical Remainer British counterparts to imply that any form of administration AT the border was a ‘hard border.’ Soldiers with machine guns? Hard border. Old bloke with clipboard checking the load of every 200th lorry? Hard border. Anything in between? Hard Border. They could then use Gerry’s implicit threats to any ‘border officials’ to ensure that there would be an unique arrangement so that if any future parliament tried to change trade or administrative regulations for any part of the UK (which the EU was very worried about) some fanatical Remainer MP could stand up and say - ‘this complicates the situation in NI.’

    You’ve just had a free lesson in the complex politics that went WAY over your head at the time. You’re welcome.

    Now, I must slowly back out of the room, and bid you good day, as you’re clearly a nutter.

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