Battered but not broken, Tuilagi banishes demons
England’s injury-ravaged center making most of second chance at World Cup
Asked if he will be at the next Rugby World Cup in 2023, England center Manu Tuilagi sighed: “I’ll be too old, mate. Yeah, I feel it.”
Too old? Tuilagi would be only 32 at the 2023 tournament in France, but right now he feels more like 52. But he can still bust up a defense. Tuilagi has been so beaten up by injuries that he has to do 30 minutes of warmups before he can participate in team drills.
“Ice baths, massage, Pilates, I just try to keep everything loose, especially after games and training,” he said.
His body was everything but loose for more than four years. Hobbled by injuries, the most serious to his groin, he despaired he’d ever play again.
But so enticing was the promise of what Tuilagi could do when he was free of injury — “He can demolish the All Blacks,” England coach Eddie Jones once said — that Jones indulged Tuilagi’s lengthy rap sheet to keep a ticket for him to this Rugby World Cup in Japan.
When the groin, the knees and the hamstrings were finally all functioning without problems a year ago, he came off the bench against Australia at Twickenham last November to a deafening roar.
It felt like a first cap to the nervous Tuilagi. It felt like the last piece of the puzzle for the excited Jones.
A year on, he and England are in the quarterfinals, playing Australia on Saturday in the Oita Sports Dome.
Before this tournament, Tuilagi’s last public act at a World Cup was in 2011 when he jumped off a ferry into Auckland Harbour and got himself arrested.
He missed the 2015 edition after he was suspended by the English union for assaulting two female police officers and a taxi driver. However, he insists he isn’t trying to make up for lost time in Japan.
“For me it’s an opportunity to just go out there and try to be the best,” he said. “There is no finished or unfinished business there for me. I’m just really enjoying playing rugby, especially being with this team.
“They are unbelievable players, and just to have the opportunity to be around them, learn from them and train with them, I’m happy.”
After playing three Tests in New Zealand in June 2014, Tuilagi started the English club season with Leicester Tigers and pulled his adductor muscle.
The 28-year-old hid it from the Tigers’ medical staff, and strapped it. Four games later he heard a loud pop and couldn’t walk. He dislocated the pubic bone.
While he endured continuous injury setbacks — Tuilagi went to a traditional healer back in his Samoan birthplace — England filled the midfield with the likes of Sam Burgess, Billy Twelvetrees, Alex Lozowski, Kyle Eastmond, Luther Burrell, and Ben Te’o.
When Jones became coach in 2016, he stayed in touch with Tuilagi, giving one of England’s few world-class talents hope.
Tuilagi had faded into a memory, specifically a memory from 2012 when he left the All Blacks scattered in his wake at Twickenham.
That game has come to define Tuilagi, and it’s debatable whether it has helped or hindered his career.
He had an OK Six Nations Championship this year as his comeback gathered pace, but he isn’t the player he was in 2012. Also, defenses have improved, and opponents have become bigger.
“I could never be the old me again,” he said. “It’s different now.”
He was once asked how different the 2014-18 period could have been, and said: “I ask that myself at times but I don’t regret anything. Whatever happened there has got me here now.”
In England’s tournament opener, Tuilagi took everyone down memory lane against Tonga as he barged through five defenders to score his team’s first try. He touched down again minutes later in support of Jonny May, and his smile lit up the Sapporo Dome and the hearts of English fans.
“We tried to contain him,” Tonga captain Siale Piutau said.
This was what Jones waited for, a battering ram like few others, and England captain Owen Farrell was glad to be on the same side.
“Manu’s someone you look at before you go out for a game and see that big massive smile on his face knowing he’s going to be unbelievably physical,” Farrell said. “That makes you excited to go out there and play with him.”
Tuilagi said he enjoys rugby more now than before he was waylaid.
“I know that it is not going to last forever, that it is not going to last very long, so I have to enjoy the moment while it is here,” he said.