Richard Cockerill, Leicester’s director of rugby, is angry that Manu Tuilagi “has had his head turned” by offers of extravagant contracts – “obscene amounts” – from Worcester and Wasps. The 24-year-old England centre, who Leicester have supported through good times and bad, has a big decision to make about his future – and Cockerill cannot be sure which way he will go.
“We’ve put our best foot forward,” Cockerill said, “but he’s had his head turned by offers that would turn your head. In the end it is always about the money. We’ve offered him a very good contract, which would make him a very well-paid player within the world structure, never mind Leicester, and we’d love him to stay. He wants to stay but ultimately somebody’s worth what someone’s prepared to pay.”
Unless Tuilagi exercises the judgment of angels, it seems Leicester are set to lose another of their own, after George Ford left for Bath in 2013. A large part of Ford’s motivation, though, was to be coached by his father, Mike.
Cockerill has less time for the machinations surrounding this particular case. “Firstly I was under the impression that you weren’t allowed to speak to anyone until January, but c’est la vie. The only way to prise away a player like Manu is to offer obscene amounts, and that might do it. Then the only reason you’re going is for the money.”
Premier Rugby recently raised the salary cap for next season to £6.5m and to £7m for the one after that, which has facilitated this latest development. Already those cynical about the virtues of a higher cap can see their concerns borne out.
“I’ve played in France [whose looser budgets have prompted the increases],” Cockerill said. “What they put out on the field is generally no better, it’s just more expensive. If the salary cap goes up, the first thing an agent says is: ‘Well, that excuse has gone now.’ Bigger salary caps just lead to bigger salaries in my experience.”
Cockerill was also keen to highlight that any club taking Tuilagi off their hands would have to fit his wages into their salary cap. The new regulations do allow for the wages of two marquee players to be excluded from the calculations but the first such player must either be new to the Premiership or to have been with his club for two seasons.
“If Manu goes to Worcester for the reported £750k – and 10% agent’s fees, and VAT on agent’s fees, and national insurance on agent’s fees and national insurance on the salary – that £900k or so must go completely into the cap, because he’s come from us. That’s the regulations. Whether they’re followed, who knows …”
Cockerill was in mischievous form. Why does the second marquee player have to have come from abroad, he was asked. “Because I think Bruce [Craig, Bath’s chairman] wanted to sign Will Genia.” But Leicester can appeal now only to Tuilagi’s better nature.
“The reality is, if he comes back in the new year for us [as he is on course to], he’s played 14 games in two and a half years,” Cockerill said. “That’s not a criticism but I’d like to think people realise the club’s been pretty good to him. I’m comfortable what we’ve done with Manu is the right thing. I think he is too and I’ve every reason to believe he’ll stay at the club.”
Whether such optimism is based on knowledge of the young man Leicester helped save from deportation or an obstinate refusal to look facts in the face is soon to be revealed.