{"id":310516,"date":"2025-11-26T18:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310516\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:51:07","slug":"tuilagi-could-face-england-with-samoa-while-marchant-return-is-boon-for-borthwick-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310516\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuilagi could face England with Samoa while Marchant return is boon for Borthwick | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manu Tuilagi has refused to rule out playing for Samoa at the 2027 Rugby World Cup<\/a>, leaving open the possibility of him facing Steve Borthwick\u2019s England in Australia.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old, who spearheaded the Red Rose midfield for more than a decade, would qualify for the Pacific Island nation in 2027 under eligibility rules<\/a> introduced four years ago.<\/p>\n

Borthwick, who has overseen 11 straight wins, has been boosted by news that Joe Marchant will join Sale from Stade Fran\u00e7ais next season. The 29-year-old former Harlequin has 26 England caps and has signed a long-term deal from 2026-27 and will now be eligible again for international duty.<\/p>\n

At the launch of the 2025-26 Champions Cup, Tuilagi was asked about potential involvement in the World Cup after Samoa emerged victorious from the qualifying<\/a> tournament in Dubai earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Tuilagi\u2019s most recent cap came at the end of last year\u2019s Six Nations, shortly before his switch from Sale to Bayonne, a move that in effect ended his England career. He would be available for selection by Samoa, should he choose to play, three years after his final England appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Samoa qualified it was all over social media,\u201d Tuilagi said of the speculation.\u201d It\u2019s still a long way away and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be able to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he would be interested, Tuilagi said: \u201cIt\u2019s different between being interested and being able to compete. It\u2019s a World Cup, not a club competition. If you want to go, you\u2019ve go to make sure you go there to compete, not just for the craic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed further, he added: \u201cFor me interest is one thing, being realistic in how you perform is a different thing. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

After signing for Sale on Wednesday, Marchant said: \u201cWhen I spoke to [Sale director of rugby] Alex Sanderson he explained the direction he wants to take the club and the ambition he has. It\u2019s a club that wants to win trophies and I\u2019d love to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Sale wing Tom Roebuck, meanwhile, revealed he broke a toe bone in England\u2019s victory over New Zealand<\/a> on 15 November but is hoping to be fit for the Six Nations. Borthwick\u2019s team begin their campaign against Wales on 7 February.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the specialist last Friday and he said no operation, which is good, but we are looking at 8-10 weeks [out],\u201d Roebuck said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t realise how bad it was until the day after when I had the scan. I got off the pitch and it was pretty angry but we managed to get through it \u2026 I woke up in the morning, got the scan and it was pretty purple. The bone had just snapped.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manu Tuilagi has refused to rule out playing for Samoa at the 2027 Rugby World Cup, leaving open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-310516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}