Manu Tuilagi’s hopes of an England recall for the Six Nations have been placed in jeopardy after he was cited for an alleged dangerous tackle during Leicester’s Champions Cup defeat by Munster on Sunday.
Tuilagi will face a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday following the incident which took place in his first match since the opening day of the season following knee surgery. Tuilagi made the tackle on Munster’s Chris Cloete in the 49th minute of Leicester’s 16-25 defeat.
A dangerous tackle carries a low-end sanction of two weeks but that rises to six if contact is made with the head, which Tuilagi appeared to do. The top end meanwhile, ranges from 10-52 weeks but any suspension will be damaging to Tuilagi’s England prospects with Eddie Jones holding a training camp in Brighton on 2 January. Leicester face Saracens on Christmas Eve and Exeter on 31 December and after the Munster defeat the Tigers head coach, Matt O’Connor, spoke of how he expected Tuilagi to make swift improvements with more game time, after obvious signs of rust on Sunday.
“He’ll get better and better every time he plays,” said O’Connor. “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.”
Tuilagi has managed only 17 minutes of game time for England under Jones and last started a Test in June 2014 due to his long list of injury problems. He underwent knee surgery following an injury picked up on the opening day of the season – his first outing since January – and he managed only seven appearances last term.
But despite being sent home from a pre-season England training camp in disgrace in August – following a late-night drinking session with Denny Solomona – Tuilagi remains a part of Jones’s plans. Speaking at the end of England’s autumn internationals campaign last month, Jones said: “All I can remember is him playing at his best against New Zealand [in 2012]. If he is capable of doing that consistently then there’s a chance of being in our squad.”
Jones is due to take England to Portugal for a warm weather training camp towards the end of next month before the defence of their Six Nations title begins away to Italy on 4 February.
