Does Billy Vunipola and Ben Te’o’s late-night drinking session show the first signs of something much bigger?

The first signs of Martin Johnson’s England team falling apart came through alcohol, while four years ago Stuart Lancaster’s plans started to fall apart once the Rugby World Cup emerged on the horizon

“Rugby player drinks beer, shocker.”

Not the words of Eddie Jones after discovering Billy Vunipola and Ben Te’o had returned to the England team hotel without their team-mates in the early hours of Sunday morning, thus breaching team protocols, but the words of one of his predecessors Martin Johnson after he found out his drunken team had gone dwarf-tossing on a night out in Queenstown during the 2011 World Cup.

Boys will be boys and all that.

Vunipola and Te’o’s drunken late return was hardly a hanging offence and the story, first reported in the Guardian, was generally seen as a storm in a half-pint cup with the matter effectively closed when it emerged the players had apologised to their team-mates behind closed doors.

Fair enough, we move on.

But while the story didn’t immediately enrage too many England fans, or indeed Vunipola or Te’o’s team-mates, it may be one we revisit in months to come.

Johnson’s team let him down badly in Dunedin that night in 2011. The England coach, completely out of his depth in managerial terms, gave them rope with which to hang themselves by allowing them a night off one game into the tournament, and they ended up swinging from one giant collective bungee.

While in isolation, a few players enjoying a night on the sauce should come as no surprise to anyone, that night in Dunedin was indicative of a deeper malaise. Discipline had broken down. The wheels were coming off. Johnson would not survive long.

That night proved to be the beginning of the end for the former England captain. Sacked after England’s worst World Cup campaign until the next one, he’s never coached at the top level since.

Talking of the next one, forward wind from 2011 to Stuart Lancaster’s doomed regime in 2015 and the initial indicators weren’t alcohol-related but timing.

Billy Vunipola was one of two players who returned from a late-night drinking session after curfew (PA)

In the build up to the 2015 tournament, those of us covering England noticed a trend. They were late, consistently late.

“Professional athlete is late, shocker,” no-one said, ever. But in retrospect those first few press conferences Lancaster and his players began to routinely turning up late to were professional rugby’s equivalent of the hazard warning light coming on a car dashboard.

There were serious problems beneath the bonnet. Sam Burgess-sized problems. A few months later England became the first host nation ever to bow out in the pool stages as Lancaster’s men produced the Red Rose’s worst World Cup campaign since the last one.

So here we find ourselves, just over four years on and the countdown to Japan is underway.

Ben Te'o also apologised to his England teammates after the incident (PA)

We’ve seen and acknowledged the warning signs on the field, where England are routinely giving up dominant positions with rudderless second-half performances which have now cost them dearly on three separate occasions, but have we just seen the first warning signs off the field?

Twelve years ago, Warren Gatland took over a Wales squad being corroded by excessive and routine drinking sessions by its players during the World Cup in France.

It became apparent that Martin Johnson had lost control after the infamous night in Queenstown (Getty) (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wales coach set about instilling a player-led culture which has evolved into a self-policing approach to alcohol consumption which has seen Wales develop into one of the most disciplined sides in the world on and off the field.

Jones has attempted to do the same, but at the moment England’s players haven’t quite grasped the nettle. On and off the field, their discipline’s not where it needs to be.

While it feels Wales are united on and off the field led by world-class professionals in Alun Wyn Jones and Jonathan Davies, it feels as if England aren’t yet singing from the same hymn sheet.

What Vunipola and Te’o did was not the end of the world but it was disrespectful to their team-mates, who had played by rules, while it blew a raspberry at their coach and undermined his authority.

Two players returning late and drunk to the team hotel on the last weekend of the Six Nations does not mean England are going to flop at the World Cup. But over time, the picture will be painted, and Jones will be desperate to avoid another horror show.

No time to panic, yet, but one day we may look back on Vunipola and Te’o’s late return and realise it was part of a bigger picture.