Tom Willis turned his back on the megaeuros on offer in France and is set to be rewarded for his decision in Dublin this weekend.

The Saracens No.8 was clubless and jobless when Wasps went to the wall in 2022 and joined Bordeaux-Begles in the Top 14.

His brother Jack, an England back rower at the time, was in the same situation and opted to sign for Antoine Dupont’s Toulouse where he has won the French league and Champions Cup. Jack then signed a new deal in France, barring him from international selection, but Tom opted to return to North London and throw his England hat back in the ring.

He won his solitary cap in a World Cup warm-up match against Wales in 2023, coming off the bench, but is expected to win his second against Ireland in Saturday’s Six Nations opener.

And the younger Willis reckons being back in the international mix shows he jumped the right way coming back when he could have stayed over the other side of the Channel.

But he insists his time in France moulded him as a player, even if it was for less than a season, and he is a better one than when he left. The 26-year-old said: “I felt like I had not had a proper crack at playing for England and that is really what I wanted to do. My brother is two years older and had 10 or 15 caps and he had a different decision to make. I wanted to come back to England, have a proper crack at it, and throw myself into it and see where it led me.

“I had to develop my ball carrying. It was quite simple how I’d approach a game at Wasps, I was well looked after and had come through the academy.

“In France no one owed me anything, I was just out there and had to get hold of it myself. In the first couple of games I got banged by a couple of Pacific Islanders, playing Perpignan away. I had to look at how I approached my ball carrying, picking better lines and just being smart around that. That carried over, coming back to England.”

That move to France, and the shock of the Wasps collapse, saw Willis living alone in a flat in Bordeaux with his life turned upside down – but he came out the other side.

He added: “The first couple of months were pretty isolating. I’d never lived on my own, my missus joined me a couple of months later but it was a bit of a shock to the system. Not knowing the language was pretty draining but it almost made the game feel simpler. I didn’t stress and focussed on bring energy and physicality.”

Willis’s grandfather Colin Stewart hails from Northern Ireland, although he moved later to Reading, but there is no question of divided family loyalties this weekend.

“I’d like to think he’s supporting England,” said Willis. “He’s followed me all over the world.”