MANU TUILAGI HAS not made such a big splash since he plunged into the icy waters down by the Auckland ferry terminal in 2011.
The Leicester Tigers and England man was the centre of attention the morning after he attended a Lions rugby function at 10 Downing Street.
Tuilagi, who appeared in the Lions’ third Test victory over Australia during the summer, made a bunny ears gesture behind British Prime Minister David Cameron during a group photo on Downing Street. He apologised later that evening but was forced to issue a longer statement of contrition as several media outlets slammed him for pulling an ill-judged prank on the PM.
Niall Morris, Tuilagi’s teammate at Leicester, told TheScore.ie that the 22-year-old had copped ‘quite a bit of stick over it’. He said:
Manu has apologised for it; he didn’t mean anything. He’s a very funny fella and was just trying to have a laugh. Hopefully people don’t make a big deal out of it. The way I see it was it was a quick brain-fart.”
Tuilagi’s coach at Leicester, Richard Cockerill, called his players ‘Jack the lad’ antics as daft and added that he should have learned lessons from previous missteps.
Perhaps to put an end to the storm in a Downing Street tea cup, Prime Minister Cameron took to Twitter to diffuse ‘Bunnygate’. “No need to apologise,” he tweeted. “I know it was just a bit of fun.”
