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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

Manu Tuilagi wipes out opponent as game halted for eight minutes and England star goes unpunished

Manu Tuilagi has been branded "lucky" after a shoulder-to-head tackle over the weekend.

The incident occurred in a Premiership match between Harlequins and Sale Sharks. Sharks scrum-half Gus Warr stuck the ball into the heavens and Quins' Tommaso Allan made the charge to get underneath it.

The Italian international fumbled the catch, and began falling before he was hit by a full speed Tuilagi, where the England 12 made direct contact with Allan's head.

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There was no punishment handed out by referee Wayne Barnes, as he decided Allan was already on his knees when he was hit. A full eight minutes passed from when he fell to the floor, to when he was stretchered off the field.

You can watch a clip of the incident below.

The commentary team for the game consisted of Alastair Eykyn, and former England stars Ugo Monye and Ben Kay. The three agreed that Barnes' decision was correct.

"He's falling to floor, I don't see any foul play there," explained Barnes.

"That's not great for a man who has a history of concussion, brain injuries, Ben." said Eykyn.

"There's no wrap though, that's the issue, they're both falling to floor." replied Kay.

"People are booing here and I totally get it. Manu is locked and loaded going into that contact. You can't, so you're going to get a collision," said Monye.

"Unfortunately, and this is not taking away how important the priority of concussion and looking after brain health is, but I just think Wayne has clearly just mentioned there, that is a rugby incident in my opinion."

Eykyn replied: "The only counter is players have to be in control, and I get it, I agree with you. The other thing is, the wrap of the arms, because we're so formulaic about it now, sometimes when players pull out of challenges, they turn their shoulder and they end up not wrapping."

"He can consider himself lucky there, Tuilagi, some referees might have had a harder look at that." added Eykyn.

BBC rugby commentator Andrew Sheridan agreed with RugbyLad's failure to understand that it was just a "rugby collision".

"Watched it unfold and heard what Wayne said but I still tend far more towards your assessment- most important of all wishing Tommasso Allan a speedy recovery and pray there is no long term repercussions for his health and wellbeing."

The incident followed OWen Farrell's no-arms hit on an opponent in Saracens' match against Gloucester on Friday. The outside-half was not punished but has since been cited, which you can read about here.

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