Manu Tuilagi incident on Top 14 debut angers France captain after ex-England star’s ‘illegal’ tackle goes unpunished

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Manu Tuilagi alongside Gregory Alldritt and the tackle (middle photo) which angered the France number eight.

Manu Tuilagi alongside Gregory Alldritt and the tackle which angered the France number eight.

Manu Tuilagi certainly made an impact on his Bayonne debut but not in a way Gregory Alldritt liked as a big tackle caused controversy.

After injury delayed the centre’s first match for his new club, the 33-year-old was looking to make up for lost time.

And he definitely did that as Tuilagi, who moved to France after a four-year stint at Sale Sharks, made a big shot on Alldritt in the 29th minute of the match on Saturday.

Bayonne dominated the opening half-hour and were 20-0 in front at the time of the incident but, had it been viewed differently, it could have changed the course of the match.

Head contact

Tuilagi made head-on-head contact with the La Rochelle number eight, who has captained France in Antoine Dupont’s absence, and it left the 27-year-old angry.

He had a rather terse conversation with referee Luc Ramos, who initially asked the television match official: “Eric [Gauzins], do you have a contrary image, the player is complaining over there. Do we do the check anyway?”

The officials decided that, despite the head contact, Tuilagi was bent at the hips, wrapped his arms and that Alldritt had dipped into the tackle.

Ramos told the back-rower, “the tackle is legal, it’s your head that tilts forward”, but Alldritt did not accept that verdict, responding, “it’s not legal. Don’t talk to us about player safety anymore.”

Fans on social media mostly took the side of the referee, querying what Tuilagi could have done to have avoided making contact with Alldritt’s head.

“What more can Tuilagi do, throw himself into Alldritt’s lap and risk serious injury? He ducks very clearly, it’s a game accident like we’ve seen and will see so many others,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another added: “Frankly the two players are bending, especially Tuilagi. How do you want them to bend, even more Tuilagi? It’s not possible, it’s an accident. There was nothing and it’s logical at best he could get a penalty but not a card.”

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Barrelling run

Tuilagi duly remained on the field and then reminded everyone what he could do with ball in hand as a barnstorming surge took play into the La Rochelle 22.

The former England powerhouse shrugged off the attentions of three defenders and got Bayonne on the front foot.

That set up the position for his forwards to go to work before replacement playmaker Camille Lopez found a gap to score their fourth try.

Bayonne would go on to claim a dominant 37-7 triumph over La Rochelle for their third victory of the season, taking them up to ninth in the table.

Meanwhile, Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle dropped to third after they suffered a second defeat of the campaign.

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England Gregory Alldritt Manu Tuilagi