LONG READ Could England try to trigger Jack Willis break clause in Toulouse deal in time for RWC?

Jack Willis has a one-season break clause in his Toulouse contract that would allow him to move to a Prem club for a season in order to make him eligible for the 2027 World Cup.

If Steve Borthwick watched his Herculean performance for Toulouse in defeat against Bordeaux at the weekend, it would have been hard for the England head coach not to have been left hoping someone will trigger it.

That Champions Cup quarter-final was essentially a Test match – ferocious and intense with attack and defence fighting a constantly evolving battle for supremacy. Willis revelled in it, topping the Toulouse stats for turnovers, carries and tackles. The lung-bursting try-saving intervention on Arthur Retière really should have counted double, it was so good.

England are not short on back-row options but to stand out in such company, as Willis did, marks him down as a player of uncommon abilities.

As things stand, under the RFU’s own rules he remains ineligible for England selection while he is playing in France, but the sabbatical small-print offers the chance to circumvent that incendiary regulation. The question is will it happen?

Most Prem directors of rugby would jump at the chance to sign a player of Willis’s quality ordinarily, but just for one season? It would feel more like a loan. There would be internal squad disruption and noses put out of joint.

There would be a financial price to pay too. The owners would need persuading that he was worth the cost. He would probably join Maro Itoje at Saracens and George Ford at Sale on the podium of the highest-paid Englishmen in the league.

So there are hurdles on the employer’s side. For Willis, it is not totally straightforward either.

For a start, he would need to satisfy himself that he was linking up with a good enough club. He has grown used to the best of the best in the Toulouse environment.  The players he plays and trains with, the coaching and the support the club provides make for a package that is hard to match. He has high standards.

It would have to be a decision tipped by an overwhelming desire to add to his 14 England caps. As a proud Englishman Willis would want to do so, of course, but how much exactly?

The one English club that could exert an emotional pull on him – Wasps – are no longer around.

Life is good for him in France. His wife and two children are settled there and he has a new house, complete with swimming pool, in the Toulouse suburbs. He speaks the language fluently and loves the lifestyle.

Brother Tom heads out to Bordeaux next season – the move which cost the Saracens number eight his place in Steve Borthwick’s England squad this season – and he is looking forward to having him closer at hand. He would need to be sure the upheaval would be worth it.

It would have to be a decision tipped by an overwhelming desire to add to his 14 England caps. As a proud Englishman Willis would want to do so, of course, but how much exactly?

You wonder whether his desperation to represent his country was watered down a little by his last experience with England at the 2023 World Cup.

Willis had special selection dispensation from the RFU at that point as his initial move across the Channel only came about because Wasps had gone under. Borthwick duly included him in his squad but he only played once, in the pool game romp against Chile, before being ruled out with a neck injury.

The England head coach clearly did not consider him to be part of his best back row. Things like that stick.

Whether Borthwick was right was debatable then, but what is inarguable now is that Willis is a better player than he was in 2023. Two-and-a-half more years of exposure to the Toulouse way and the Top 14 has evolved him.

He was voted the player of the season in the best league in the world last season with his 28 turnovers a yawning 12 clear of the next best. He leads the standings in the Champions Cup this season.

This should not come as a surprise. With his remarkable elasticity and his instinct for when and where to strike, the turnover is his superpower.

Lawrence Dallaglio, for one, believes England simply cannot afford to do without him. Should Borthwick begin to lean the same way, then we get to the point where the England coach might want to ask a question of the RFU.

Where he has really kicked on is in his attack. The nuggety thrusts into heavy traffic against Bordeaux was a powerful example. Of all the back-rowers in the Top 14, only Sam Simmonds and Billy Vunipola have made more post-contact metres this season.

If Willis’s hands were a weakness when he went to France, Toulouse’s emphasis on pass and catch and find space has improved them no end. At 29, he is playing his best all-round rugby.

He is a hugely popular figure at Toulouse and has impressed everyone at the club in his four seasons with his desire to be the best player he can be and his diligence to put in the work necessary to make that happen.

Lawrence Dallaglio, for one, believes England simply cannot afford to do without him.

Should Borthwick begin to lean the same way – and the evidence is all there for him – then we get to the point where the England coach might want to ask a question of the RFU.

The question should not be whether they can invoke their ‘exceptional circumstances’ get-out again as they did at the last World Cup for Wills. The only exceptional circumstances at play here with an individual who knew the score when he re-signed for Toulouse is that he is an exceptional player.

No, the question he might want to pose is whether the RFU would be willing to help out with the repatriation deal.

If the RFU could offer Willis one of their 25 enhanced Elite Player Squad contracts for the World Cup season – it would have to include the warm-up games so he could have a chance of integrating into Borthwick’s system, whatever it happens to be by then – and then let interested Prem clubs compete for his services, it might kill two birds with one stone.

The contract carrot would serve to show Willis he is valued and loved and the remuneration involved would help the lucky club who got him meet the costs of bringing him home.

This sort of approach would be more straightforward in Ireland, say, where the provinces and national team are a lot more closely aligned, but with relations warmer between club and country in England these days, it would be possible.

Maybe there are too many obstacles on both sides for him to play for England again. But it would be an unforgivable oversight not to at least try to make it happen.

Willis actually qualifies for Ireland through his Northern Irish grandfather and would, technically, become eligible to switch to them later this year, but the chances of that happening would seem remote.

France is not an option because World Rugby’s second nation transfer rules only cover blood qualification rather than residency.

Logic suggests it is England or bust. Perhaps he will just settle for life at the Real Madrid of rugby with Toulouse – it’s not a bad fate after all – but it feels a waste for Willis to be frozen out of international rugby.

Maybe it just isn’t meant to be. Maybe there are too many obstacles on both sides for him to play for England again. But it would be an unforgivable oversight not to at least try to make it happen.