Manu Tuilagi

As one of the starting XV, he scored a try in the 44th minute underneath the posts after an inside pass from Jonny Wilkinson.

He then played in the third warm-up game, a victory over Ireland, and scored again.

He was a regular starter during the World Cup.

Etuale Manusamoa Tuilagi (born 18 May 1991) is a professional rugby union player who plays as a centre for Premiership Rugby club Sale Sharks.

Born in Samoa, he represents England at international level after qualifying on residency grounds.

Tuilagi was born on 18 May 1991 in Fogapoa, Samoa.

He is the younger brother of Freddie, Henry, Alesana, Anitelea and Sanele Vavae Tuilagi, all of whom are Samoan internationals and also played for Leicester.

He has another sibling, Julie, who is fa'afafine.

He was named Manusamoa, after the name of the Samoan national team, Manu Samoa, because his brother Freddie was selected for Samoa at the World Cup in 1991, the year Manu was born.

He moved to the UK to join his brothers, and began playing youth rugby in 2004 with Rumney RFC while living in Cardiff, when his brother Freddie was playing for the Cardiff Blues.

Aged 15, he moved back to Leicester, joining the Leicester Tigers academy.

Tuilagi represented Leicester in the Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham in 2009.

On 6 November 2009, Tuilagi played for Leicester Tigers against at Welford Road.

Leicester won 22–17.

In June 2010, Tuilagi faced possible deportation from the UK after it became known that he had entered the country on a holiday visa six years earlier and had stayed on illegally.

After an appeal, he was later granted indefinite leave to remain.

He and his brother Alesana are both Catholic.

He began his first season, 2010–11, with the senior Tigers side.

Tigers Director of Rugby Richard Cockerill said that he expected Tuilagi to be a first-team regular and to play for before long.

During this season he started the majority of games for Tigers and was called up for England Saxons duty.

In May 2010 he played for an England seven which won the London Floodlit Sevens, playing under the name 'Dig Deep England'.

In Leicester's Premiership semi-final against Northampton Saints on 14 May 2011, Tuilagi received a yellow card for punching Chris Ashton.

Tuilagi was later cited for this offence and given a 10-week ban, later reduced to five weeks.

He was selected to start the England Saxons game against Italy 'A' in January 2011, scoring a second-half try in a match which England won 45–17.

In June 2011 he was named in England's training squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

In addition, Tuilagi has been involved with the England Sevens squad.

On 6 August 2011, he made his England début in the World Cup warm-up match against Wales at Twickenham.

One of his strongest international performances came in the final match of the 2012 Autumn internationals, against the World Cup winners New Zealand at Twickenham.

England won 38–21 – their largest ever winning margin over the All Blacks.

Tuilagi featured in all three of England's tries.

Tuilagi started the 2013 Premiership final and scored a try as Leicester defeated Northampton Saints.

Tuilagi was named in the Lions squad for their 2013 tour to Australia.

After injuring his hamstring in late 2014, Manu did not play for the Tigers again until January 2016, making his comeback off the bench in the 30–27 East Midlands derby win over Northampton Saints.

He played for the rest of the 2015/16 season.

However, his injury problems continued and he was sidelined for most of the 2016/17 season with knee problems, making his comeback in the first game of the 2017/18, only to suffer a new injury to his other knee.

In a bid to cure his injury problems Tuilagi visited a Samoan witch doctor in November 2017, the witch doctor claimed to have found three spirits had married Tuilagi and were causing the injuries, and massaged Tuilagi for two hours a day for four days to block the spirits.

On 10 July 2020, Tuilagi left Leicester Tigers after failing to agree a reduced wage package, amid the financial challenges caused to the club by the coronavirus pandemic.

On 13 July 2020, Tuilagi agreed to join Sale Sharks on a one-year deal until the end of the 2020–21 season.

He has since extended his contract for a further two seasons.

Tuilagi said he would prefer to play internationally for, where he had grown up and played all of his rugby.