According to reports, as the television news broadcasters like to say, Billy Vunipola is toying with the idea of a move to Japan at season’s end. This may or may not be true, but one thing is for sure. It doesn’t much matter either way. Not in the England context, at least.
Will he be an option at the next World Cup in Australia? Nope. The possibility was vanishingly small even when Steve Borthwick, at his most unfathomable, picked him as his one specialist No.8 for the last World Cup in France. Once Vunipola was usurped by a non-No.8 in Ben Earl, it vanished completely.
There are almost as...