Matt O’Connor, the Leicester head coach, wants rugby union’s authorities to be held to account after Manu Tuilagi’s citing for a dangerous tackle was dismissed, leaving the centre free to continue his comeback from injury.
Tuilagi pleaded not guilty at his hearing on Wednesday with the disciplinary panel ruling that while the tackle on Munster’s Chris Cloete was reckless it did not warrant a red card. It was the 26-year-old centre’s first match since the opening day of the season, having undergone knee surgery, and means he is available for Leicester’s Christmas Eve match against Saracens.
It also boosts his chances of stringing together a run of games before Eddie Jones names his England squad for the Six Nations. While O’Connor was satisfied Tuilagi had been cleared, he pointed to the disruption the disciplinary process had caused.
In October the England captain Dylan Hartley’s involvement during the autumn internationals was placed in jeopardy after he was cited for striking the head of Clermont’s Rabah Slimani. That was also dismissed and Northampton swiftly issued a statement with the now former director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, saying: “Citings like this do beg the question of whether Dylan is being singled out for what has happened in the past rather than being judged solely on [the] game.”
O’Connor said he does not believe Tuilagi had been singled out because of his Pacific Islands heritage but he was similarly critical of the disciplinary process. “Everyone involved in the game has to be a little bit more accountable for the actions they take,” he said. “The players and the coaches are certainly accountable and we’d just like the rest of rugby to be just as accountable, the citing commissioners.
“It’s caused unnecessary disruption. It’s what it does to Manu in the state that he’s in. He comes back and plays the game physically and legally. Unfortunately, it just makes everyone a bit unnecessarily cautious about the physicality and collisions. The citing commissioners need to be a little bit more accurate with what they’re sanctioning and what they’re not.”
Tuilagi’s former British & Irish Lions team-mate Brian O’Driscoll insisted the “game has gone soft” in response to the citing on Tuesday and O’Connor insisted that the tackle was legal. “He won’t miss any rugby so that’s incredibly pleasing,” O’Connor said. “The sanction has to be a red-card offence and from our perspective there was no red-card offence. There was no malice, there was no intent to hurt the bloke. It was a very legitimate tackle. It’s a reaction to the broader community around health and safety and player welfare.”
Tuilagi has managed only 17 minutes of game time for England under Jones and last started a Test in June 2014 because of his long list of injury problems. He made only seven Leicester appearances last term but, after coming through 80 minutes against Munster, O’Connor was optimistic of swift improvements. “He’ll get better and better every time he plays,” O’Connor said on Sunday. “We’ll be very diligent about what we have to do but the growth that he’ll get out of that mentally and physically will be enormous for us.”
