Tuilagi stars as Leicester boost play-off ambitions
Manu Tuilagi helped Leicester, toothless for much of the season, to rediscover their bite with another inspirational performance that revived their play-off hopes.
The centre scored Leicester’s bonus-point try when he picked up and crashed over from a ruck, then set up the fifth for Telusa Veainu and made a thorough nuisance of himself during another industrious 80 minutes.
Tuilagi now plays with his left leg heavily strapped, the legacy of an early-season knee injury. Although his return to fitness has come too late to influence England’s Six Nations campaign, he is close to recapturing his best form.
“He’s getting more and more confidence defensively and he looks good out there. We are just
happy that he is getting game time, he’s getting through games and he’s got a smile on his face,” said Leicester head coach Matt O’connor.
“When I coached him previously at Tigers he was probably the best 13 in the world.
“He’s the only bloke I have seen beat the All Blacks on his own, so he’s got a little bit of growth in him yet.
“He’s working really hard, he’s confident in himself, which is key, and he’s enjoying his rugby again,
which is the biggest priority.” Leicester have also benefited from Matt Toomua’s move to fly-half, which has given them control behind a pack that has been revitalised since Mark Bakewell arrived as their forwards coach last month.
After they were beaten at Gloucester three weeks ago, Leicester looked certain to miss out on the play-offs for the first time since 2004, but they are now definitely back in the shake-up.
The scoreline flattered Leicester as they scored 19 points in the last 11 minutes, but Worcester have struggled to back up wins over Exeter and Gloucester last month in their fight against relegation.
“We wanted eight points out of this block of four games, but we would have liked to get the eight points by winning at London Irish, which didn’t happen,” said Worcester director Alan Solomons.
“The fact that they didn’t get any points today is beneficial to us, but we are in control of our own destiny at the moment.”
Conditions were dreadful as the game got under way, with heavy rain replacing the snow of the past week.
The sides traded blows looking for the breakthrough until a searing burst from inside his own 22 from Veainu set up the opening score.
Worcester were not helped by poor handling and ill discipline, and were forced to reshuffle their back line after replacement scrumhalf Luke Baldwin was stretchered off in the second half with a suspected knee-ligament injury.