Every Saturday morning, the young rugby players from the French village of Ondres in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region meet for a weekly runout, a stone’s throw from the beach.
Nothing atypical, you might assume, for a rugby-mad nation where the sport is thriving at all levels? Well, not quite. For the last year or so, Ondres’ next generation have been able to call on the expertise of an English export with quite a few stories to tell.
‘My boy is playing for a team in the village,’ Manu Tuilagi tells Daily Mail Sport, in his first major interview since crossing the Channel to join Top14 side Bayonne. ‘I sometimes take him down for his rugby session and I’ll end up helping the coaches. The matches are at 10am – it’s basically my warm-up for my game!
‘It’s great for me to see my kids playing and I want to help the coaches because they give up so much of their time volunteering. Those people are the lifeblood of the game.’
Tuilagi might be 34 and already have taken up some part-time children’s coaching, but his move to France after 15 years as a star in English rugby certainly isn’t about him slowing down. Far from it, in fact.
The powerhouse centre, who won 60 England caps before leaving the Premiership behind last summer has, remarkably, hit new heights on the field. Given Tuilagi scattered opponents all before him for home club Leicester and Sale as well as his country, the prospect of him improving even as he approaches retirement is a frightening prospect. But that is exactly what has happened.
Manu Tuilagi has flourished since leaving England for French top-flight side Bayonne
The 60-cap former England star certainly isn’t about him slowing down. Far from it, in fact
Last season, his first in France, Tuilagi was not only named in the Top14’s team of the year – alongside fellow England exiles Jack Willis and David Ribbans – but also helped unfancied Bayonne to an impressive fourth-place finish, above the likes of double European champions La Rochelle, Racing 92 and Lyon.
So, is he now a better player than when he wreaked havoc with England?
‘Definitely,’ Tuilagi says, sipping on his favourite flat white and relaxing in the 30-degree temperatures at Bayonne’s state-of-the-art training centre.
‘I’ve enjoyed the challenges which have come with moving here. I’ve felt growth as both a person and a player. It’s been nice to have a change. Change is hard at the start, but it’s been a good thing for me to experience the Top14.
It’s been different, but that’s the beauty of life, isn’t it? If everything is always the same, what’s the point? It can get a bit stale then.’
Tuilagi certainly hasn’t gone stale. He is one of more than a dozen English stars who have left their Test careers behind to embrace the booming French rugby ecosystem.
Even at Bayonne, who aren’t one of the true giants of the Top14, there are the likes of Springbok scrum-half Herschel Jantjies, Wales No 10 Gareth Anscombe and Argentina flyer Mateo Carreras.
What is fascinating about Tuilagi’s European renaissance is that throughout his time with England, he was often hit hard by injury.
He is one of more than a dozen English stars who have left their Test careers behind to embrace the booming French rugby ecosystem
Name a body part and Tuilagi has most probably broken it at one point or other. The Samoa-born midfielder has also suffered with recurring chronic groin problems over the years which hindered his international appearances.
It made you wonder how Tuilagi would go in the Top14, widely regarded as European rugby’s most brutal and physically demanding league. A small hand fracture aside, he has thrived. In his debut campaign, he played 20 Top14 games, 18 of which he started.
‘I think maybe the sun has something to do with it! I love it,’ Tuilagi says. ‘The fact I’m here all the time has played a part. I haven’t been going back and forth with internationals.
‘I’ve been training hard and consistently and that has been key to me staying fit and playing a lot of games. I still like coffee in the morning. Only coffee. It’s probably not good for me and maybe I shouldn’t say that! For dinner, I like to eat salmon, lamb neck soup or lamb breast with taro.’
Tuilagi’s pre-season has involved rowing – a nod to Bayonne’s presence on the River Adour – surfing with his three young children and beach walks.
He has also tried his hand at Basque pelota – a traditional sport in the area played with your hand, a racket or a wooden bat or basket.
Bayonne’s Stade Jean-Dauger ground has a pelota club next door as well as a bistro restaurant and children’s playground on site. The players train next to their home stadium, the two separated by trees.
On the day Daily Mail Sport arrives, closing in on 100 Bayonne locals are pitchside watching training despite the intense summer heat. In England, there would be panicked officials worrying about training calls being seen or heard in such a situation. Not here.
Tuilagi credits the sun and a slightly tweaked diet and fitness routine for ending his injury hell
He was named in the Top14 team of the season in his first campaign in France, alongside fellow England exiles David Ribbans and Jack Willis
‘It’s very different,’ Tuilagi admits with a bellowing laugh. ‘We haven’t got Skegness up the road like when I was at Leicester!
‘In England, it’s raining and cold. You don’t spend much time outdoors. Here, we go to the park and the kids are outside all the time. We’re five minutes from the beach. Life is really good. We’re really happy here, me and my family. Bayonne is a beautiful place.
‘I wanted to enjoy this lifestyle. The fans are here every day for training. It’s unheard of in England. It just doesn’t happen. When I first got here, I couldn’t believe it. Every morning I’d come in and there’d be people queuing at the gate to get in.
‘The old boys are here every day, from the first day of the season to the last. That’s their life.
‘They go for a coffee in the morning with their friends then walk here to watch training with their baguettes. That’s their lunch. For me, it doesn’t matter if the calls get leaked. Sometimes you can know them, but you’ve still got to stop them! If you’re worried about that, you’re distracted from what you should be doing.’
Tuilagi made his last England appearance in the 2024 Six Nations and his French switch brought an end to his international career due to the RFU’s foreign selection rule. He has been linked with a Test transfer to his native Samoa in time for the 2027 World Cup, but that is unlikely.
England fans will never forget Tuilagi rampaging forward with ball in hand, most famously against in a rout of New Zealand at Twickenham in 2012. For different reasons, his drunken dive into the Auckland harbour at the 2011 World Cup and punching Chris Ashton during a Leicester-Northampton derby will also live long in the memory.
Tuilagi believes that even though he’s no longer involved, England have the potential to be Six Nations winners and global champions in the coming years.
Tuilagi’s England days – highlighted by his epic display in a rout of New Zealand in 2012 – are probably over
Going over inside the first 90 seconds of the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in 2019
His career was not without low points, including punching his England team-mate Chris Ashton during a Premiership semi-final in 2011
‘I love watching England. Sometimes I still go to the matches, but now I’m just a fan,’ he says. ‘They’re doing very well and it’s so good to see.
‘I love watching Ollie Lawrence. He’s injured at the moment. I was gutted for him to miss out on a big year with the Lions. But he’s still young. He’s got everything – power, pace, skill. He’s got a kicking game as well. I just hope he stays fit and carries on.
‘I’m thankful for everything that’s happened to me now I can look back. At the time, the injuries and off-field incidents were hard. Don’t get me wrong.
‘But when things aren’t going well, you learn a lot about yourself. You definitely have to cherish the bad times. They help you grow. They are all lessons. But you have to learn those lessons otherwise these things will keep happening again and again.
‘One of my favourite England games was against Australia at Twickenham in 2018. I came off the bench. I’d been out for a long time with a groin injury and it was my first game back after about two years. That was a very hard time. So, for me to get back on the field, even though I only came on for something like 15 minutes, meant a lot.’
Tuilagi and Bayonne begin the 2025-26 French domestic season at Perpignan today. The club doesn’t have the profile or heritage of the likes of Toulouse or Toulon, but they are on the up. They have sold out their last 35 competitive home games.
Tickets are in such high demand that even the club’s players can only get hold of them for immediate family members, and the Stade Jean-Dauger atmosphere is known as one of the best in France.
‘I do miss the people in England,’ Tuilagi adds. ‘A lot of the English boys who came to France before me said it’s amazing. But you have to be here to actually feel it.
Tuilagi and his family are now fully immersed in life in Bayonne
‘I’m enjoying it more than ever. I think I’ll see out my career here.’
‘Now I have. People have asked me if I should have come earlier. I don’t think like that. Everything happens for a reason. My focus will also always be on wherever I’m at and right now, that’s Bayonne.
‘There’s no point me thinking about other places. Doing that will only take me away from where I am. I enjoy it here and I’m trying to make the most of it.
‘I’m 34 now and one of the older boys in the group, but I still feel young. I still enjoy my rugby.
‘You have to because one day, you’ll have to stop and from there, there is no going back. I’m enjoying it more than ever. I think I’ll see out my career here.’
