{"id":686138,"date":"2026-01-10T06:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/686138\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T06:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:08:14","slug":"manu-tuilagi-set-for-welford-road-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/686138\/","title":{"rendered":"Manu Tuilagi set for Welford Road return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Manu Tuilagi will play at Mattioli Woods Welford Road for the first time since his move to France<\/a> in 2024, after being named at inside-centre in a much-changed Bayonne<\/a> team for Saturday\u2019s Investec Champions Cup<\/a> tie against former club Leicester<\/a> Tigers.<\/p>\n

Tuilagi, who made the Top 14<\/a> Dream Team in 2024\/25 \u2013 his first season across the channel \u2013 has made nine appearances this term but has yet to cross the whitewash.<\/p>\n

The former England<\/a> international, whose career at Leicester was very stop-start due to his well-documented injury problems, has Orlando Bailey<\/a> as his opposite number in a match between two winless sides in Pool 3.<\/p>\n

Bailey is 10 years younger and 10kgs lighter than Tuilagi, who is one of only a handful of players to retain their place in the Bayonne starting XV following last week\u2019s crushing 62-22 defeat at Montpellier, which left the club faltering in ninth place in the Top 14 standings.<\/p>\n

Former Newcastle<\/a> livewire, Mateo Carreras<\/a>, is not included in the visitors\u2019 matchday 23, denying the Welford Road faithful what would have been an intriguing duel with another pocket-rocket, Adam Radwan.<\/p>\n

For Leicester, flanker Tommy Reffell<\/a> returns as one of three changes from the team that dispatched Saracens, the others being Charlie Clare<\/a> at hooker for Jamie Blamire<\/a>, who is rotated to the bench, and the inclusion of Gabriel Hamer-Webb<\/a> on the left wing after a three-month lay-off for a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

Hamer-Webb makes his Champions Cup debut for a third different club, having previously played in the competition for Bath<\/a> and Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Leicester:<\/strong> 15. Freddie Steward<\/a>, 14. Adam Radwan<\/a>, 13. Will Wand<\/a>, 12. Orlando Bailey<\/a>, 11. Gabe Hamer-Webb, 10. Billy Searle<\/a>, 9. Jack van Poortvliet, 1. Nicky Smith<\/a>, 2. Charlie Clare<\/a>, 3. Joe Heyes<\/a>, 4. Cameron Henderson<\/a>, 5. Ollie Chessum<\/a> (c), 6. James Thompson<\/a>, 7. Tommy Reffell<\/a>, 8. Olly Cracknell
Replacements: 16. Jamie Blamire, 17. Tareq Haffar, 18. Will Hurd<\/a>, 19. Joaquin Moro<\/a>, 20. Emeka Ilione<\/a>, 21. Tom Whiteley<\/a>, 22. Joe Woodward, 23. George Pearson.<\/p>\n

Bayonne:<\/strong> 15. Tom Spring<\/a>, 14. Gabriel Lapegue, 13. Guillaume Martocq<\/a>, 12. Manu Tuilagi<\/a>, 11. Victor Hannoun<\/a>, 10. Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es Boyle-Tiatia, 9. Baptiste Tilloles<\/a>, 1. Ignacio Calles<\/a>, 2. Lucas Martin<\/a>, 3. Pascal Cotet<\/a>, 4. Arthur Iturria<\/a> (c), 5. Alvaro Garcia<\/a> Iandolino, 6. Rob Leota<\/a>, 7. Raphael Marchesin<\/a>, 8. Manex Ariceta
Replacements: 16. Facundo Bosch<\/a>, 17. Emosi Tumania, 18. Junior Tagi, 19. Ewan Johnson<\/a>, 20. Noa Traversier<\/a>, 21. Herschel Jantjies<\/a>, 22. Jonah Thompson<\/a>, 23. Bastien Rasal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manu Tuilagi will play at Mattioli Woods Welford Road for the first time since his move to France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-686138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115869312831034645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}