Eddie Jones’s decision to drop Jonathan Joseph caught a lot of people by surprise. Joseph was one 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 automatic 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 will bring the best out of another in an entirely different position.

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

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