Manu Tuilagi ends England career after agreeing move to Bayonne

The 32-year-old centre, who earned his 60th cap in the Six Nations defeat by France, will leave Sale Sharks at end of the season after agreeing two-year deal

Manu Tuilagi has agreed to join the French side Bayonne next season, a move that will bring an end to his 13-year England career.

As The Times revealed last week, the centre, 32, was in advanced talks with the Top 14 side about a move from Sale Sharks. It is understood he has now agreed a contract with the club for two years, having played his 60th and final England Test on Saturday night against France in Lyon.

The final details of the deal are still to be fully confirmed and Tuilagi will need to visit Bayonne to have a medical before the move can be fully rubber-stamped, but he is now set to finish his career in France in 2026. Tuilagi was due to visit Bayonne after England’s Six Nations match.

By moving abroad, Tuilagi will be ineligible for England, as the RFU bars anyone playing outside the country from representing the national team.

This means that, as predicted, the France match was Tuilagi’s final game for the national side. He appeared in the 59th minute, replacing Henry Slade, and played the last 20 minutes of a match that England lost in agonising fashion, with Thomas Ramos kicking the winning penalty in the 79th minute to make it 33-31. It was Tuilagi’s one and only appearance in this year’s Six Nations.

Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, will now need to move on from Tuilagi, who has been a dominant figure in the national team since his debut in August 2011. Ollie Lawrence, the 24-year-old Bath centre, starred in the Six Nations and was preferred to Tuilagi for the matches against Scotland, Ireland and France.

Sale have been resigned to losing Tuilagi for a while, as they can no longer fit him in the Gallagher Premiership’s salary cap, which presently sits at £5 million but will rise to £6.4 million — its pre-Covid level — next season.

They had managed to retain Tuilagi last season, having signed him to successive short-term deals after he left Leicester Tigers in 2020 by making him their one marquee player whose salary sits outside the cap. George Ford, the 31-year-old England fly half, is now likely to take on that protected status.

Sale have signed the Fiji captain Waisea Nayacalevu as Tuilagi’s replacement, for next season.

In Bayonne, Tuilagi will be coached by the former Bath and England full back Nick Abendanon, who is an assistant there. Bayonne are ninth in the Top 14 at present.