Sale boss: Manu is ready... his country needs him now

MANU TUILAGI is ready to bring the ‘bang’ back to England’s midfield after being recalled by Eddie Jones for the showdown with Wales at Twickenham on February 26. As expected, the Sale centre was summoned yesterday to the England training camp in London, after recovering from a hamstring injury. From the moment Tuilagi signalled his return by flattening Harlequins’ powerful South African Andre Esterhuizen, it was only a matter of time before his country came calling yet again. The 30-year-old has contributed to two dominant Sale wins this month and director of rugby Alex Sanderson said: ‘Manu is loving it at the moment and wants to keep cracking on here, but he is made for a bigger stage and his country needs him. ‘He’s ready to go. Against Quins, it was his first game back. He came off the bench and looked as powerful and destructive as he’s ever looked defensively. His first involvement after five seconds was to go through Esterhuizen. ‘Last week, he got a lot more ball in hand and not so much in defence. He was brilliant in attack. Those two games showed me how sharp he is on both sides of the ball. He doesn’t need any more game time, unfortunately for Sale. What he needs is to have a week of increased loading so that when he goes into full training next week to prep for Wales, he doesn’t break down when he plays in that game.’ For the last decade, whenever Tuilagi is fully fit England pick him and rely on him. In all that time, no one of the same impact has emerged to take on the mantle of power-carrier in midfield which all Test teams crave. Asked if his attributes make him unique as an England-qualified centre, Sanderson said: ‘There’s no-one with the same bang or the same power-to-punch ratio.’ Since the end of last season, Tuilagi has followed a weight-loss regime, but the encouraging news for England fans is that he has not lost his ability to wreak havoc. Sanderson added: ‘He’s about 103kg now. That’s still big for a back. It’s just not big for Manu. You could see he still had that real punch in the tackle at Quins. And when he got the ball he was still running through and running over people.’ The centre’s availability paves the way for a potentially devastating 10-12-13 alliance with Marcus Smith and Henry Slade. Last night, the RFU confirmed that 25 players will take part in a five-day camp in London. Sam Simmonds won’t train this week but is expected to be fit to face Wales, while Joe Marler and Nick Isiekwe are not included. Courtney Lawes and Jonny Hill have been brought in to continue their recovery from concussion and a leg injury respectively.