Manu Tuilagi: Stuart Lancaster made the right choice to expel centre from England after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer

COMMENT: Tuilagi should be treated the same as everyone else - and he has

Manu Tuilagi is another Pacific Islander to have appeared for England (Getty Images)

You could be forgiven for being a bit disheartened that England’s most urgently needed footballer, most talented cricketer and most dangerous rugby player have all been made unavailable for selection for entirely non-sporing reasons.

Stuart Lancaster, it will be said, didn’t have a choice. You can’t assault a police officer and expect to carry on as normal. Except, of course, you can. Lancaster did have a choice. And he made the right one.

“As role models and ambassadors for the game, the highest standards of behaviour are expected from every England player both on and off the field,” he said after news of Manu Tuilagi’s actions became public knowledge.

Tuilagi in action against New Zealand

You don’t have to agree with the “role model” principle, but in this case, it doesn’t matter. It’s arguable that sporting superstars shouldn’t have to accept they must be judged more harshly on the basis that little boys and girls look up to them, and that without draconian punishment, aspiring rugby players will think it’s OK to punch police officers, whether they are male or, as this offence was alleged to be against, female. Anyone old enough for sentient thoughts should be capable of separating out a person’s phenomenal sporting ability from their dreadful personal behaviour. It’s only insecure parents that can’t.

Tuilagi should be treated the same as everyone else – and he has. And any accountant, chemist, painter and decorator or nuclear physicist pleading guilty to the assault of a police officer would expect to see their P45 not long after.

There is almost no spectacle so unedifying in sport as the terrible contortions of a fan or a club to justify the unjustifiable. Luis Suarez racially abused Patrice Evra. Two weeks later, his team mates are parading around in T-shirts with his name on. John Terry may well be a captain, a leader and a legend, but for at least a couple of seconds on the Loftus Road pitch, he was also a racist.

As strong as the urge must be for Lancaster to look the other way, to keep someone of Tuilagi’s talent in the squad, but to do so would have been both morally indefensible and, crucially, damaging to the team.

Occasionally, members of the All Black management are asked questions about Zac Guilford, an extremely promising player who had broken into the first team but who, in 2011 ran drunk, naked and bleeding into a nightclub and assaulted two tourists. He has since admitted to alcoholism, but his international career has since essentially ceased to be.

The captain, Richie McCaw, always says the same thing in reply to such questions: “We have a philosophy. Once you’re an All Black, you’re an All Black 24/7.”

It’s a policy that would appear to serve them well. It’s not just on the pitch that you can let down your team mates.

Come September, England will be without its rampaging elephant on the pitch. But it would have been worse to have had one in the room.