England's Manu Tuilagi will leave Sale Sharks, and likely bring an end to his more than a dozen-year international career, to join French club Bayonne at the end of the season.
Tuilagi, 32, has signed a two-year contract at the club near the southwestern border with Spain after months of speculation about his future in England.
With the centre late in his career and foreign-based players not being eligible to play for England, Tuilagi's appearance off the bench – his 60th cap wearing the Red Rose – against France last Saturday will almost certainly be his last.
Tuilagi was not drawn on questions about his England future as speculation swirled ahead of that match last week, and focused on thanking Sale in the news on their website announcing the move on Tuesday.
“I've absolutely loved my time at Sale,” he said. “It was a really tough decision for everyone because my family and I have been really happy here.
“I never thought I'd leave Leicester and it was a big move, but since arriving here I've grown a lot as a person. I've developed as a player but more so as a person.
“The environment at Sale is amazing. It's what makes me want to get out of bed and put the work in, and I genuinely love coming in every day.
“If I've helped the young players then that's great, but they've helped me so much too and I'm going to miss them all.”
Tuilagi joined the Sharks in 2020, winning the Premiership Cup months after the season restarted from the Covid-19 pandemic in that year and playing in the club's first Premiership final in 17 years last year where they were beaten by Saracens.
In the same year he made the move to Sale Tuilagi won the second of two Six Nations titles, previously winning a Grand Slam in Eddie Jones' first tournament in charge of England in 2016.
He was only able to make two appearances off the bench in that first triumph though, missed England's successful defence of the title in 2017 and only featured in three of their five games in 2020 – with injuries blighting what was an otherwise a stellar career in the red rose.
Tuilagi played a pivotal role in England's run to the World Cup final in 2019 and their recent run to the semi-final in 2023, but exits the international stage having made less than half the international appearances of Welshman George North, who has also just retired and received his first cap only a year earlier.
Despite his fitness troubles, Tuilagi has received huge adoration from England fans throughout his career for his excellent ball-carrying skills, offloading and try scoring abilities, with the Samoan-born powerhouse crossing 20 times for his country – often in crucial games.
His rampaging man-of-the-match performance against New Zealand in 2012 helped England secure their first win against the All Blacks in nine years, and seven years later he scored the opening try in one of England's finest victories as they beat New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup.
And though injuries have affected his time in Greater Manchester, Sale head coach Alex Sanderson was full of praise for what Tuilagi had brought to the club in his four years there.
Sanderson said: “We talked about what was best for the club and what was best for Manu and his family, and we had to make a tough decision. But it's still a wrench and really tough for me to accept that he's going.
“He is one of the world's best players, and one of the world's best blokes. There are very few people who can do what he can on the field. As a player he's every bit as good as I thought he was before I came here, but as a person he continues to surprise and inspire me to be better.
“We'll miss him massively on the field, but the void he leaves off it will be harder to fill.
“His smile is the same whether he's running on to the field ready to smash someone, or sitting opposite you having a glass of wine, and I'm really going to miss that.”
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