• Leicester 31-27 Exeter
• Richard Cockerill urges England not to pick Tuilagi for Wales matchEngland believe been advised not to play Manu Tuilagi against Wales on Saturday,with the player’s coaches at Leicester insisting the centre is still a month short of optimum match fitness. Tuilagi was among the try-scorers in his sides bonus point victory against Exeter on Sunday but Richard Cockerill, the Tigers’ director of rugby, or still felt it would be an unwise call to choose the centre on the bench at Twickenham.
After 15 months out of the game through injury Tuilagi has not played Test rugby since June 2014 and Cockerill believes there is limited value in rushing him back prematurely. “I don’t think he’s going to be ready to play Test rugby, said Cockerill. “Even whether you keep him on the bench to be an impact sub, what happens whether you believe to keep him on after five minutes? It doesn’t mean he won’t be involved but Manu’s still not played a huge amount of rugby. He’s probably five or six games away from being able to play 80 minutes for England at Test level.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com