How Manu Tuilagi matured from England’s bright, young, powerful rogue to their mentor-in-chief

Tuilagi is central to England’s success in more ways than one and, as Jack de Menezes writes, it’s all a far cry from his off-the-field actions in Auckland nine years ago

Manu Tuilagi has taken on a role as one of England's senior mentors (Getty)

Manu Tuilagi’s worth to this England team has been well-documented, more so than his mischievous manner off the pitch that always dogged him in the background of his early career.

But the Tuilagi who helped orchestrate England’s dominant 24-12 victory over Ireland on Sunday is a far cry from that individual who was fished out of Auckland Harbour nine years ago after Rugby World Cup elimination.

The 28-year-old has matured by his own admission thanks to the birth of his daughter in 2018, while his four-year injury nightmare has taught him to embrace every minute on the pitch as the next long stretch off it may be lurking around the corner. But his individual maturity has benefitted more than just the centre alone, as his head coach Eddie Jones revealed after the latest Six Nations victory.

“Players get a lot of confidence playing with him, he’s a very popular guy in the team,” said Jones. “He looks after young players – he looked after Joe Cokanasiga at the World Cup, he’s looking after Ollie Thorley at the moment – and he just does those things off his own back.

“We don’t have an official mentoring system. The senior players tend to handle that themselves.

“He’s a very caring guy and he adds a lot to the team. In that way he gives us more than just our physical presence.”

The motivation to put such a warm arm around his younger teammates stems from Tuilagi’s own experiences. Nine years ago he made his debut as England’s bright young thing, albeit with enough power to knock a house down, which came in the final months of Martin Johnson’s tenure where tough love was very much the approach.

“I just try and help the young guys coming in, especially coming into a big environment like England,” said Tuilagi. “I was in that position once and sometimes you can get overwhelmed so I'm just there to keep them focussed and keep doing what they are doing and not change anything because they have come in to England. What they did got them here. So I said don't change anything.

“I feel really old! The boys there are so young. It’s something I naturally got into. The young boys are really good and keen to learn. If I can help them it’s good for the team.”

But strip everything back and what proved best for the team was merely the presence of Tuilagi back in the side. The Leicester Tigers midfielder has not lost against Ireland in their last six meetings, a streak that suggests his ability to crash not just over the gain line but straight through it exposes one of the biggest weaknesses in their gameplan that has carried over from the Declan Kidney era, through Joe Schimdt’s reign and now into Andy Farrell’s.

It was also no surprise to see England struggle when Tuilagi went off injured in France at the start of the month, although England will need to learn to adapt when they are without the 17-stone powerhouse.

Luckily for England and Jones though, that requirement doesn’t need to come just yet while Tuilagi is fit and firing on all cylinders, which could yet just lead to their Six Nations championship dreams remaining intact through to the final weekend in mid-March.

“It was a tough game against France. Fair play to them they stopped our momentum, every time we got some they slowed it down at the ruck,” he added.

“We are definitely back to where we want to be. I still think we’re not quite there yet, especially in the second half (on Sunday) we felt that we could have done a bit more, we kind of let Ireland back into the game and didn’t put our foot on the gas. That’s frustrating but we’re getting there.”