Oita: Australian playmaker Matt To’omua has sledged England players before this weekend’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash.
To’omua spent three years with the Leicester Tigers between 2016-2019 and on Thursday gleefully revealed a few trade secrets about several of the players the Wallabies will lock horns with in Oita on Saturday.
“I’ve been very fortunate to play with a lot of them there,” said the veteran fly-half.
“I know all of their weaknesses luckily — I can list them now for you if you want,” added To’omua with a smile, before going on to savage former Tigers teammates Manu Tuilagi, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Jonny May and Dan Cole.
“Manu is a terrible snooker player, George Ford never pays for a drink, Ben Youngs isn’t even the best rugby player in his family.
“The chicken, Jonny May — very weird ... and Dan Cole doesn’t have a personality, so I’ve just been telling everyone about that.”
On a more serious note, To’omua admitted that England had “no glaring weaknesses”, picking inside-centre Tuilagi as possibly England’s biggest threat.
“Obviously I had a very good relationship with a lot of the fellas there and one thing I do know is they’re all quality players,” he said.
“We were fortunate in the last couple of years, when Manu came back from injury, just watching him grow in stature. He probably grows the bigger the game as well — he probably plays his best rugby in Tests, which is the sign of a true champion.”
