Alex Sanderson, Sale Sharks’ director of rugby, said this week that Manu Tuilagi was “simmering” after being dropped from the England squad by Steve Borthwick. Evidently, the player’s internal temperature was closer to boiling point as he unfurled a UFC-style elbow into Tommy Freeman’s jaw while carrying the ball into contact. His team ran out of steam without him, coughing up a 20-point lead to lose at Northampton.
“He’s gutted,” Sanderson said. “He’s fessing up to the boys in the circle; apologising and saying he owes us. He fully owns what happened out there and that’s the kind of man he is. I know he will pay us back.
