Jeremy Guscott column: Aaron Mauger can turn Manu Tuilagi into an even more lethal weapon

Another breakthrough moment for Manu Tuilagi will come when he develops an understanding of what other players can do playing off him. We know that at 6ft and 17st 7lb (112kg) he has the aggression and power to be a huge threat physically, and that he can run through people, but to make the next step to world-class he needs the bolt-ons of game awareness, and accuracy in his passing and off-loading.
It’s very hard to improve skills when you are in international camp because it is an environment where you are required to play with higher intensity and perform to the peak of your ability. That has to be your main focus, and there is not the time to learn and add new skills. So, Manu’s development will come at the Tigers, with head coach Aaron Mauger in the most influential position to implement it.
Mauger was a wonderfully creative centre for the Crusaders and New Zealand, and he is still young enough to have empathy with the current generation of players. He’s got that All Black DNA in which hard work, sacrifice, and attention to detail are ingrained, and also will have an understanding of the South Seas psyche from his NZ experience.
That makes him ideally placed to bring the best out of Tuilagi, and make the most out of the great new backline talent at the Tigers with the arrival this season of Telusa Veainu and Peter Betham, and the growing confidence of a running fly-half like Freddie Burns.
We should remember that, at 24, Tuilagi is still a young man, and hopefully the long lay-off with injury will have recharged his batteries and may give him a longer shelf-life in the pro game.
However, Manu has come back looking a bit heavier than he was at his best and he needs to develop his fitness levels in tandem with new skills. It cannot be easy carrying around almost 18st, and it means that you will tire more quickly.
There has to be a compromise, and with the advances in sports science I’m sure that Tuilagi’s power can be maintained at a slightly lesser weight.
Fitness is an attitude, and often it involves a lifestyle change that is not easy to make. Like Tuilagi, I suffered from a groin injury which put me out of the game for long periods, and I know that you can become bored and disillusioned, as well as having the nagging worry that it might never come right.
A big difference for me came with the arrival of Dave Reddin as the England conditioning coach for Clive Woodward’s squad. He had us doing 400m reps, then 300m, and then 200m, and it left me feeling so knackered that my initial thought was to run as far away from this fitness guy as I could get. But then I began to realise that I could run quicker for longer, and that it was a huge benefit.
The hardest thing to recognise about fitness is that when you push yourself to the limit it hurts just the same, but as you get fitter it doesn’t hurt for so long because you recover more quickly. Then comes the psychological switch that goes on when you see that your opponents are hurting more, and that you can go again when they cannot. It is a huge boost knowing that you’ve got them in the lungs.
It’s a bit like the advantage that Saracens have over their Premiership rivals. Most of them are thinking, ‘how do we get ahead against a side who look and play as if they are 20 per cent fitter than us?’.
Hand-in-hand with fitness comes the crucial extension of Tuilagi’s game through an improved skill-set. We saw some passes from Owen Farrell at 12 during the Six Nations that Manu would be very unlikely to make, but he will get hold of the ball more at inside-centre – and he will like that because of his ability in close contact.
Tuilagi’s X-factor is that he has always been multi-dimensional in being able to threaten at close quarters as well as in open space. Most defences will want to shepherd him inside into bigger defenders blocking his path, but if he starts to off-load effectively in contact he can become the Ma’a Nonu style of player that Eddie Jones has talked about.
The only proviso is that I don’t see a Nonu-like kicking game as an important part of Tuilagi’s development just yet. Brian O’Driscoll did not start kicking until he was older and slower, and Manu is being picked by Jones for what he can do when he is going forward with the ball in his hands, not for booting it.
The subtle off-loads are there already with Tuilagi – as we saw when he put Betham over against Gloucester last weekend – and now it is about knowing how and when to deliver them. It is important that he is not put off if sometimes they do not work. Guys like Veainu and Betham are good support runners and the understanding will come.
Effective support running is always about reading the man with the ball. If I was following someone like Simon Zebo I’d track him three or four yards behind and come onto the ball late because it’s only when he’s made his last move that you’ll recognise where the space will be. If I was tracking Manu you’d know that his main focus will be on contact first, and off-load second.
The light-bulb moment will be when Tuilagi understands that it can be the other way round – and that is where his elite rugby education with Mauger comes in. For the moment with Leicester, and probably England, he’s either getting the ball at 12 and smashing forward, or he’s missed, so long-passing will not be his main requirement.
Tuilagi will either be the attraction – or the distraction – at inside-centre for now (although the arrival of Matt Toomua next season might see Manu playing for Tigers at outside centre) and the passing and kicking can be grafted on with time. As for conditioning, Tuilagi is certainly fit, and he’s getting match-fit. However, whereas in the past you’d expect him to be tiring around the 60-minute mark, when he’s still going strong after 80 minutes he’ll be a lethal weapon.