Manu Tuilagi and Englands Midfield

First topic message reminder :

Been having a discussion about Manu on another thread and i thought id open it up to everyone to see your opinons?

It seems to me that almost 100% on here are simply assuming Manu will walk back in to the England team.

Is Manu simply that good that he can do that, over those currently in the midfield? Is he Englands superstar player that they cant do without?

What about his competition? He has the power game..but what if Elliott Daly was to move back permanently to 13?

Many are advocating a midfield of

10 Farrell
12 Burrell
13 Tuilagi
It has huge power...but possibly missing a little guile?

Im merely putting out there...might the following have more balance?

10 Farrell
12 Burrell
13 Daly (once hes back playing permanently at 13)

I think the fact that Yarde and Wade would have been the starting wings, bar injury, shows that to be the case Yappy.

Tuilagi can play wing. He can stay out on the wing and support the rucks if the ball gets out there. But England don't use the wingers by bringing them in, they stay out.

But this is speculating. Burrell shouldn't play 12 because he's not the sort of 12 England want. Tuilagi would be good on the wing because he'd be good if we changed how we used the wings. The fact Tuilagi came on for Burrell has been used to suggest SL doesn't want a LB/MT centre partnership. But surely this also means he's not seen as a winger yet either.

Yes he obviously used him as a centre today. But he's talked about him as a wing in several interviews, including immediately before this game.

Nowell didn't score his try from the wing, and even if Tuilagi were to stay wide he'd still be a massive threat, far more so than May looks.

And there's no doubt at all that SL purposely avoided a LB/MT partnership today, despite knowing 36 couldn't last 80 minutes.

He also purposely avoided Tuilagi on the wing. It's been talked about uneven been used. Given how badly the wings were doing today it would have been the perfect opportunity to try it.

Another problem is Leicester will almost never play Tuilagi on the wing. They have plenty of depth out wide. Thus Tuilagi won't have much practice working in the wider channels, positioning and kicking. Bad idea. Tuilagi is a centre, and has much better hands than many give him credit for. And he is undoubtably a force of nature, proved effective against the best teams in the world. Good to have some genuine competition for him now though.

It would have been. I still think we'll see it, because I think England will want 36, Burrell and Tuilagi all in the starting line up. Given there is no evidence at all SL has any doubts about 36, the only other way Manu starts is if Burrell is dropped, and that would be strange given how well he's played at 13.

DaveM wrote:Ok, ok. I 90% agree with him.

It'll be interesting to see if Daly is a regular at 13 for Wasps next year. In a couple of years' time I think Tomkins will be pushing hard. Indeed this years' u20's first choice partnership of Stephenson and Tomkins could be the senior partnership.

I 100% agree with me, just to clear that up   

Seen Tuilagi plenty, if someone can point me to a game where he's shown a decent offload please do, I'm willing to be convinced.

DaveM wrote:It would have been. I still think we'll see it, because I think England will want 36, Burrell and Tuilagi all in the starting line up. Given there is no evidence at all SL has any doubts about 36, the only other way Manu starts is if Burrell is dropped, and that would be strange given how well he's played at 13.

Doesnt matter how well Burrell plays if Manu is seen as better. Tough decision to make but its great to be in the position where we have to make it.

I just think having all three on with Manu on the wing feels wrong. Might be ok in the last 10 minutes of a game but that is it.

Burrell is a terrific back up option.

The game we won against the All Blacks, Barritt's try. That's just from memory so may be wrong.

Edit: from memory Tuilagi takes the pass off Barritt, gets pushed into touch and offloads to Barritt. It was close as the defender interfered with the pass but it went to hand.

I think Burrell is a better 13 than Tuilagi is. So I'd go with him there. However, presumably Tuilagi will be available for the 1st Test in NZ and Burrell won't, so he'll be the man in possession.

HammerofThunor wrote:The game we won against the All Blacks, Barritt's try. That's just from memory so may be wrong.

Edit: from memory Tuilagi takes the pass off Barritt, gets pushed into touch and offloads to Barritt. It was close as the defender interfered with the pass but it went to hand.

Damn it. OK, when he hasn't absolutely HAD to offload to keep the move alive.

I don't tend to worry too much about better. Burrell has done well and should 'hold' the shirt. The only ones I don't think have done enough to take the shirts are the wings. Hopefully, Yarde will come back strong. The other I'd try Wade if back or stick with Nowell.

I think he put some decent ones away for the Lions off the top of my head, and I have certainly seem him linking well for Leicester.

Hood83 wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:The game we won against the All Blacks, Barritt's try. That's just from memory so may be wrong.

Edit: from memory Tuilagi takes the pass off Barritt, gets pushed into touch and offloads to Barritt. It was close as the defender interfered with the pass but it went to hand.

Damn it. OK, when he hasn't absolutely HAD to offload to keep the move alive.

  

Just looking at that NZ game. He put Ashton away against NZ too.

Some really good hands from him for the Lions over the summer as well.

This thread kind of feels a bit like "what have the Romans ever done for us" right now...

 

ChequeredJersey wrote:This thread kind of feels a bit like "what have the Romans ever done for us" right now...

  

What did Burrell do once he was subbed?

Anyone know?

He wasn't happy.

swearing and muttering to himself abit.. The body language was telling

i don't know anymore than that.

I don't blame him tbh, he was playing well.

If he wasn't unhappy about being subbed I would be worried. Shows he has the right mind set.

You could see him muttering 'pi$$ed off'

As has been said - a good sign. He has had a super 6N