Ireland vs England: No concerns over playing Manu Tuilagi out of position in Six Nations opener, says Scott Wisemantel

Attack coach Scott Wisemantel says he will blame himself if Tuilagi fails to adjust to playing at inside centre ahead of his first Six Nations start in six years

England attack coach Scott Wisemantel believes Manu Tuilagi will have no problem adapting to being played out of position, despite Eddie Jones previously admitting that he now sees the powerhouse centre as a natural 13.

The side strain suffered by Ben Te’o in training this week has forced Jones’ hand into deploying Tuilagi at inside centre against Ireland, despite his own personal wishes to see the Leicester Tigers back in the No 13 shirt in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup. The head coach scrapped his initial belief that Tuilagi could be the power-running No 12 that he needed when he took the job in 2016 after seeing him return to form and fitness with Leicester this season wearing No 13, with the emergence of Te’o as a similar option for England assisting that change in heart.

But with no Te’o in Dublin, Tuilagi will slot in-between Owen Farrell and Henry Slade in what will be his first England start since June 2014 - and a first in the Six Nations in six years. Yet Wisemantel, who has spent the week running the drills in Portugal that has helped convince the backroom staff that Tuilagi is ready to return, believes he will have no problems switching positions and will only blame himself if something goes wrong on Saturday evening.

“If he hasn't then I've failed,” Wisemantel said in Dublin on Friday. “I've got all the confidence in the world in Manu.

“I don't think it's that big a challenge. Manu feels pretty confident there. He's got great players either side of him. Henry (Slade) has really grown into that 13 role and Owen is world class.

“He's fit and well, he's in a good head space. Physically he's running really well, so there's no reason for us to fear playing him at 12 at all.

“You've got three class players, all together. Ben Te'o drops out and Manu comes in, so it's a bit of like with like.”

Tuilagi will start England's Six Nations opener against Ireland on Saturday (Getty)

George Kruis is another who has been brought into the side, with the Saracens lock tasked with trying to unpin the Irish lineout that proved so influential in this same fixture two years ago. On that occasion, a late injury to the now-retired Jamie Heaslip meant that Munster flanker Peter O’Mahony came into the starting line-up following the warm-up, and the British and Irish Lions captain has not looked back since, becoming a mainstay in Joe Schmidt’s side and earning a reputation as one of the best lineout and breakdown operators in the game.

“He’s just quite unpredictable I think,” said Kruis. “He wants to get up in the air as well, he’s not afraid of getting up. You pair those two things together and you’ve got a good combo.

“They've got some good athletes and they have good tactics with that. We've seen some good battles between them and New Zealand. You put them as the benchmark at the moment.

“We have a good lineout ourselves and we're confident in that, but Ireland study you and have plans for you. They're a well coached team.

O'Mahony has been a thorn in the side of England over the last few years (Getty)

“At this point it’s all mentally now. They’ve got a good pack, Irish teams normally do, but we’re pretty confident in ourselves as well. We’ve got some great players back from injury, we’ve got a really good bench as well and there’s some really good players left out of our squad as well which are top class players. We’ll be fully ready and it’s just about mentally switching on now.”