Manu Tuilagi’s hopes of making his England return on the summer tour of South Africa have been dealt a significant blow after he sustained the latest in a long line of injuries during Leicester’s nail-biting win against Wasps.
To compound matters for England, Elliot Daly and Jonny May both came off with injuries in the first half of a breathless match, settled by George Ford’s late penalty – neither Eddie Jones nor any of his coaching staff was present and, considering the injury bulletin, it was probably for the best.
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Tuilagi will undergo a scan to explore the extent of his chest injury and, while his club’s head coach, Matt O’Connor, was hopeful it would not lead to a long lay-off, the 26-year-old’s history precedes him. “He’s got a pec issue,” O’Connor said. “He was pretty adamant he couldn’t continue, so from that point we know there’s something wrong with Manu. But he’s pretty confident in the changing room it’s not a massive issue.”
Tuilagi has not played for England for more than two years and he was ignored by them throughout the Six Nations but, make no mistake, his progress for Leicester will have been closely monitored with Jones urging him to rediscover his best form following another lay-off earlier in the season with a knee injury. This was an eighth Premiership start in a row and he had scored tries in the last two but he cut a disconsolate figure on the bench with 12 minutes gone, clutching his chest. It is the other side from a chest injury suffered in the autumn of 2013 – a problem that was followed by knee and groin injuries – and Jones will be hoping that is not the case this time.
May followed Tuilagi off after he was knocked unconscious by a Christian Wade tackle and Daly also made way before half-time, having scored both of Wasps’ tries. It was a horrible looking finger injury – to the extent that he was given oxygen on the pitch before departing. “It’s a bad dislocation,” the Wasps director of rugby, Dai Young, said. “The bone came out as well, quite nasty and quite painful. I’d like to think it’s weeks not months but the way we’re going, who knows?”
The one positive note for England will be how Ford responded to being dropped for their defeat by Ireland and Leicester will be buoyed by what is a fifth Premiership win in six. They are perennial semi-finalists and remain in the hunt in fifth place. For Wasps it was too many cases of white line fever, apart from the continued excellence of Daly.
All be told, it was breathless stuff, full of endeavour, errors and no little skill. It has been a bumper weekend for attendances and a full house is guaranteed here when Wasps are in town. There were three tries in total – there ought to have been three times that number – as well as two yellow cards and countless missed chances.
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As has been discussed at length throughout the inquest into the Six Nations failings, England are likely to count the cost. May and Daly are expected back sooner rather than later but both will concern Jones considering Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell are also injured at present.
Leicester set the tone by kicking to the corner with an early penalty and Sione Kalamafoni touching down from the ensuing lineout drive. Ford converted and Leicester kept coming – Sam Harrison was denied by a last-ditch Dan Robson tackle, after a slippery run from Telusa Veainu.
Daly then finished off in the left-hand corner on a rare outing on the wing for his club, and he registered again – his fourth in two matches – with the best score of the match. Wasps were a man up after Nick Malouf was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card for catching Christian Wade’s jaw with his shoulder and Danny Cipriani and Willie le Roux combined to delightful effect to put Daly away.
James Haskell was making a nuisance of himself before Robson intercepted and looked clear on the left, only for Mathew Tait to roll back the years and catch the scrum-half in the corner. Robson might have had another too, had he held Le Roux’s pass near the Leicester line.
Veainu was sent to the sin-bin early in the second half for a deliberate knock-on but Ford kept chipping away at Wasps’ lead before nosing them ahead after Kearnan Myall infringed at a lineout with only three minutes to go. “We created at least six or seven clear try-scoring opportunities and you’ve just got to take them,” Young said. “One more score halfway through the second half could have seen us home.”