England sweat spear-tackling Tuilagi
Injuries and a citing for foul-play threatened to spoil England coach Stuart Lancaster's celebrations, following his team's impressive 57-26 demolition of a star-studded Barbarians team on Sunday.
Lancaster remained confident burly midfielder Manu Tuilagi will escape censure for a dangerous spear tackle on national teammate Danny Care in the Premiership Final at the weekend.
Tuilagi, playing for Leicester Tigers in their 23-30 loss to Harlequins in the Premiership Final at Twickenham, will know in the next day or two whether he will be cited for his moment of madness.
The England coach was hopeful that Tuilagi will not be cited and will be available for the three-Test tour to South Africa.
Lancaster has also stated he expects ace flyhalf Toby Flood to be fit, despite the injured Leicester flyhalf being withdrawn from both the Premiership semifinal and the weekend's Final.
Phil Dowson took a heavy blow to the head during England's eight-try romp over the BaaBaas on Sunday, but Lancaster expects he will also be available to tour.
Tuilagi was penalised in the second minute of the Final, for lifting Care off his feet and driving him into the Twickenham turf.
With disciplinary officials clamping down on spear/tip tackles, Tuilagi will indeed be lucky if he escapes any form of censure.
The citing officer has four working days from receipt of the match video to cite a player.
"We have not heard anything," Lancaster told a post-match media briefing after Sunday's outing against the BaaBaas.
"Looking at the incident I am pretty confident he will be fine but we will wait and see.
"Phil Dowson had a bang to the head but he is up and walking around in the changing room. We have some time before the first Test but at the moment he is looking okay.
"Toby hurt his groin kicking prior to the game and Leicester chose not to risk him. He will turn up in camp tomorrow and we fully expect to take him on the tour."
