Tuilagi’s 18-month-old little girl Leilani Lea’auta posted an inspiring Instagram message with the help of her mum
She may not know too much about World Cup rugby just yet. But the toddler daughter of England star Manu Tuilagi sure knows how to fire up her daddy for perhaps the greatest game of his life.
Before his side faced the fabled All Blacks for a place in the final yesterday, Tuilagi’s 18-month-old little girl Leilani Lea’auta posted an inspiring Instagram message – with some help from her mum.
‘Go Daddy’ Leilani told Manu in one picture. And: ‘So proud Daddy’.
The result, as all the world now knows, was a performance that catapulted Tuilagi to legend status among fans.
Shortly before the two teams took the field yesterday, England’s coach declared with a sly grin that Tuilagi was in his best-ever form and ‘ready to cut loose’.
Since straight-talking Eddie Jones is not normally given to hyperbole, New Zealand should really have heeded his warning.
But maybe they assumed Jones was engaging in mind games, trying to secure a psychological advantage. Or maybe, when just 98 seconds after kick-off, Tuilagi did indeed cut loose and crash like a juggernaut over the line to score the most important try of his career, the mighty All Blacks simply had no way of stopping him.
The birth of Leilani Lea’auta with fiancée Chantelle Garrity (pictured) has seen Manu Tuilagi mature into the man he is today
If it had been the 28-year-old Leicester centre’s sole contribution, he would still have been lauded, his name spoken with reverence in bars across England and on the Samoan island of his birth 10,000 miles away. Yet the 6ft, 17st player they call the Chief did so much more.
Jones warned before the match: ‘I’ve never seen the Chief in better nick… I’ve never seen him physically better. I’ve never seen him mentally more attuned.’
And Tuilagi more than lived up to Jones’s extravagant assessment. As well as England’s only try, he produced a defensive masterclass, his performance inspiring an epic victory.
It is one of Jones’s many attributes that he rarely loses faith with those blessed with divine talent, however much they test him. And few have tested him like Tuilagi.
Misdemeanours include jumping off a ferry into Auckland harbour, punching a rival player, making a rabbit ears sign behind then Prime Minister David Cameron’s head, assaulting two female police officers and a taxi driver and returning to the England hotel drunk during a pre-season training camp.
Add to that an injury list that has beset his career for years and Tuilagi has proved quite a headache for coach Jones. But all that will be forgotten (perhaps it has already) if he turns in a similar performance in the final in Yokohama on Saturday.
It is not just the coach England fans have to thank for coaxing Tuilagi to sublime form. The birth of Leilani Lea’auta with fiancée Chantelle Garrity has seen him mature into the man he is today.
But derailed by one injury too many, he might never have resumed his international career but for the intervention of a witch doctor in his homeland two years ago.
Tuilagi, from the small beach village of Fatausi-Fogapoa on the Samoan island of Savai’i, arrived in England when he was just 13 and made it his home, later choosing to play for England rather than his homeland. He is one of seven brothers, five of whom have played Test rugby for Samoa.
The eldest, Olotuli, is a ‘Fa’afafine’ or cross-dresser who has lived his life as a woman and goes by the name Julie. ‘It’s just the way he is,’ Tuilagi once said.
‘He was born like that and he wants to dress up as a woman. It doesn’t matter. He’s our brother.’
In 2017 it was to his Samoan village that Manu returned when his mother, Aliitasi, insisted that he seek out the ‘Fofo Samoa’ – or witch doctor – to help ‘rebuild’ him following persistent knee injuries. ‘My gift is to see spirits,’ the spirit healer told The Mail on Sunday. ‘This is what I have done since I was 14. I search for people’s Ma’i [sickness] and find out if it is caused by the spirits.’
Tuilagi spent four days in the Fofo Samoa’s company and was treated with Fijian oils in order, the healer claimed, to cast away three women who had ‘told me Manu belongs to them’. He added: ‘I massaged his body with oils made from coconut, frangipani, sandalwood, rose. I saw that three lady spirits were following him and I cast them away and I told Manu he will play rugby again. Now he is protected.’
England’s Ben Youngs (right) celebrates scoring a try with Henry Slade (left) and Manu Tuilagi at the semi final match
Clearly it worked, the healer achieving something that had seemed beyond modern medicine. It had been a long and dark process. Some, himself included, had doubted whether he would ever run out at Twickenham again. ‘At one point he was down, very down,’ said fellow Samoan Logovi’i Mulipola who shared a bachelor pad with him in a Leicester suburb. ‘I think the secret to his recovery was back in Samoa. The people around him and his family…’
Tuilagi adores his adopted homeland. However, his illegal immigrant status threatened to wreck his burgeoning career having entered the country on a holiday visa and over-staying by six years. The Home Office wanted to deport him but in 2009 he played for Leicester against South Africa in a televised match that would prove a crucial turning point.
Leicester beat South Africa 22-17 and Tuilagi was one of the stars of the show. His solicitor managed to secure a court order to prevent his arrest and won the right to appeal.
Then, fans started a petition on Facebook and in 2010, the UK Border Agency granted Tuilagi leave to remain. Which, England fans will agree, was just as well.
The stage is now set for the greatest match of his career – and the chance to earn a place among the pantheon of England’s sporting greats. And no doubt little Leilani Lea’auta will be planning to fire up her daddy once again.