Tuesday 19 May 2015 22:37, UK
Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill says the club will continue to support Manu Tuilagi, despite the centre being left out of England's World Cup squad.
Tuilagi pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers and a taxi driver when he appeared before magistrates in Leicester last week.
He was fined £5,500 and ordered to pay £705 in costs, and Stuart Lancaster responded by announcing Tuilagi will not be considered for England until January 2016.
Tuilagi will have a disciplinary hearing at the club this weekend but Cockerill told Sky Sports News HQ that Leicester will not "cut him adrift".
"Stuart has hard and fast rules and he’s stuck to them," said Cockerill. "Maybe finding the full facts of the situation and how extreme it was may have been a more sensible route, but Stuart runs it how he sees fit and you have to support that.
"From our end, we’ll support him. We’ll go down the nurturing route. Manu is feeling pretty bad about what he’s done. Let’s not cut him adrift and just think he’s a bad human. He does a lot of good things away from the field as well.
"He has to understand what he has done is wrong but also, everyone has to understand that he is a young man living in the public eye, and young people make mistakes."
