Tuilagi wins England Rugby Try of the Decade
England Rugby fans have voted Manu Tuilagi’s early try against New Zealand in 2019 as their Try of the Decade.
His second-minute try set the tone for a pulsating England performance against New Zealand in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
England went on to defeat New Zealand 19-7 and seal a place in the World Cup final.
Tuilagi beat off stiff competition to win the vote on England Rugby social media channels with over 60,000 fans choosing his try as their favourite from the past 10 years.
Chris Ashton’s length of the field try against Australia in 2010 was second in the vote.
“I just want to thank the fans for voting for the try,” said Tuilagi.
“It was a great try, a great example of a team working together, forwards and backs combining. The forwards put in the hard yards and gave us backs the space out wide to exploit. The opportunity came and I was lucky enough to be there at the right place at the right time.
“The way we wanted to start that games was to take it right to New Zealand from the off, and we did that. It set us up for the rest of the match. It was a great game, one of the most memorable matches of my career.
“Thanks again for the vote, I hope you are all staying safe in isolation and keeping yourself fit and busy. Stay strong.”
England head coach Eddie Jones echoed Tuilagi's sentiments about taking on New Zealand.
“We really wanted to dent New Zealand’s confidence early," said Jones.
"We tried to do that through the formation of our Haka and through our first attacking raid in which we wanted to be nice and direct and put pressure on them. We managed to do that brilliantly and Manu finished it off."
