Dropped Joseph is paying the price for the loss of Vunipola’s power play

of England’s most dangerous attacking threats in 2016. Clearly he was not at those standards against France and Wales. So why the dip in form?

The assumption is that it is down to the individual. Yet I would argue that Joseph is a victim of Billy Vunipola’s injury. It may seem odd to equate the form of an outside centre with the presence of a No 8, but throughout rugby there are these odd combinations where a player brings the best out of another in a different position.

Joseph is brilliant when faced with defenders on his inside shoulder. When they are on his outside shoulder, he looks a bit stifled – as a lot of players do. When both Billy and Mako Vunipola are playing, the defence ends up being concentrated and narrower, to deal with their direct threat. Without them the opposition defence can spread a lot wider.

That means Joseph is finding that he is getting the ball with lots of defenders in front of him and without many options. Previously he was getting the ball with defenders on his inside, which is when he is at his best. He can do that little stop-step-and-go-again, put a grubber in, or make a break on the outside. He is not getting those opportunities any more.

What it tells us is that England are not creating as much space in phase play as they did. Over the past two years they created a lot of space in phase play by upping the tempo. The only real space we saw them create against Wales was off a counter-attack from a terrible kick. The rest of the game was based on power and momentum.

Some of that was very good. There were periods in the first half where I thought England looked very strong carrying and making ground, but they still had to go through many more phases than previously. When they were scoring tries in the autumn, they were scoring off two, three, four phases, whereas here they were having to carry seven, eight, nine times to make the same ground – and they were beating fewer defenders.

One guy who had been beating a lot of defenders was Joseph. Clearly England as a whole suffer when Vunipola is not around, but Joseph, in particular, thrives on that extra yard of space. He does not have the power to barrel through a tackle or out-and-out gas.

It works the other way around too. The presence of a back who can regularly win turnovers, such as Brian O’Driscoll or Alex Dunbar, has a huge beneficial effect for flankers. Without that extra man, it means you have to chase a few lost causes and end up getting trapped in rucks you do not want to be in.

Likewise, Billy Vunipola also benefits from having Mike Brown alongside him. Having that rock at full-back means he will field the high ball and, distribute it, allowing the No 8 to make ground.

I think it is a subject to which players should pay more attention when they move clubs. A lot was made of George Ford moving to Leicester to play with Ben Youngs. But if I was in his shoes then the scrum-half would be only a small part of it. The reassurance I would be seeking from Leicester is that you are going to get me a really big ball-carrier and I am going to be playing on the front foot, which is when Ford is at his best.

I moved to Leicester in 1996 not because Joel Stransky was going to be arriving or Dean Richards was going to be my No 8, though that was part of it. I went there because