Gleeson hails return of Tuilagi

England attack coach Martin Gleeson has hailed the return of star Manu Tuilagi as the destructive centre is set to start in this Saturday’s Six Nations encounter at home to Wales.

Tuilagi returned to camp last week after pulling his hamstring while scoring a try in England’s 27-26 victory over South Africa back in November.

As expected, the hard-running centre was welcomed back into camp with open arms.

Gleeson said: “We’re delighted to have Manu back. Manu is the type of player who could jump in anywhere. We’ve got options with the squad we’ve got, and nothing is ruled out with Manu or any of the other players. 

“Manu can just take the ball and make metres, giving us quick rucks and metres all by himself. Not everyone can do that, that’s why he is the player he is because of his power and good rugby brain.”

Despite Tuilagi’s return, Gleeson is adamant that England’s game plan will remain flexible.

He said: “You don’t just ditch the finesse game plan to a solely physical one because one player comes in, I think we can use both of our game plans in tandem and if he plays that’s exactly what we’ll do.”

Earlier today Tuilagi was retained in Eddie Jones’ 25-player squad for Saturday’s must win encounter.

The match will be England’s first home game of the tournament and the first Six Nations tie at Twickenham in front of a full crowd since the corresponding fixture in March 2020.

Gleeson is optimistic going into the game but recognises England will have to be on top of their game if they are to secure a vital win.

He said: “We’ve got to go after them when we have and when we haven’t got the ball. We need to have some line speed about us and hit hard, and when we’ve got the ball, we need to take the opportunities that we see. We don’t want to play within our shell, we want to play the brand of rugby we want to play straight from the off. 

“Today’s session was the best we’ve had since I’ve been here. The intensity and some of the play was superb. We’re heading in the right direction, obviously it’s never perfect but we want to play with the right attitude with or without the ball.”

Written by Ben Jaycock