Manu Tuilagi signs Leicester contract extension as Tigers secure futures of Ben Youngs, Freddie Burns and Ed Slater

Centre signs new contract as Youngs, Slater and Burns also commit to Tigers

Manu Tuliagi has signed a new contract with Leicester (Getty Images)

Richard Cockerill, one of the more talkative souls at the top end of the English club game, almost gave himself laryngitis during his long-running commentary on the future of the centre Manu Tuilagi.

Time and again over a period of many months, the Leicester rugby director insisted that contract extension talks with the human bowling ball were “positive” in tone, despite the “obscene” amounts of money being tabled by rival Premiership teams.

England scrum-half Ben Youngs has extended his contract with Leicester (2015 Getty Images)

Today, the talking stopped and the writing happened. Tuilagi signed a new long-term deal at Welford Road, committing himself to the people who have stood by him during his regular brushes with officialdom. Some reports put his earning power somewhere north of £400,000 a season – a handsome wage, to be sure, but not particularly extravagant by current standards.

Indeed, some of the less wealthy clubs in the top flight are deeply concerned that the latest hike in what Premiership officials laughably call the salary cap – to all intents and purposes a mythical arrangement, given the proven impossibility of policing it properly – will price them out of success, if not quite out of business. “One or two teams are offering pots of money to players from both the northern and southern hemispheres and it’s unsustainable,” said one rugby director last weekend. “Things are getting stupid.”

Leicester, far from the biggest spenders in the league, have taken significant steps towards guarding themselves against that stupidity by retaining the services of three other prime players: the outside-half Freddie Burns, the lock Ed Slater and the England scrum-half Ben Youngs. The latter had been a serious target for Bath, who believed at one point that they had succeeded in agreeing terms. It seems there is no end to the negativity currently attaching itself to the West Countrymen.


 Freddie Burns joined Leicester from Bath last year
 (Getty Images)

Cockerill, understandably pleased with his team’s top-three position in the Premiership and their unbeaten status in the European Champions Cup, could not help striking a note of self-justification in celebrating developments on the Tuilagi front – even though there is no sign of the spherical midfielder shaking off a groin injury that has plagued him for more than a year.

“We always wanted him to stay and we always believed he wanted to stay too,” said the former England hooker. “Manu has had close connections to the club from a very young age and is a big part of the family here. Leicester have been good to him and he has shown huge loyalty in return. This is where he is at home, the supporters love him and we’re looking forward to getting him back out on the pitch in the near future.


 Leicester lock Ed Slater
 (Getty Images)

Gloucester, who are distancing themselves from reports linking them to a couple of current Scotland internationals in the centre, Matt Scott and the lock Grant Gilchrist, expect to have Tom Marshall, their hot back-line signing from New Zealand, fit for action in the foreseeable future. Comfortable at centre as well as on the wing, the 25-year-old Aucklander who played Super Rugby for both the Canterbury-based Crusaders and the Waikato-based Chiefs has yet to make his Kingsholm debut.

Meanwhile, London Irish have brought a familiar face back into the domestic game by appointing Andy Keast to a position on the senior management team. Keast was head coach of the Exiles between 1999 and 2001, was a member of the British and Irish Lions backroom staff in the triumphant 1997 series against the Springboks and also held down a coaching director’s position at Harlequins. He returns to England after eight years in South Africa.