Jack Willis hinted he could be open to switching allegiances to play for Ireland, as the flanker remains ineligible for England selection.

The 29-year-old Toulouse back row has enjoyed another standout season in the Top 14, being crowned the league’s Player of the Season for the second year running this week.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) currently restricts overseas-based players from representing England, meaning Willis has been unable to add to his 14 international caps since the 2023 Rugby World Cup. He won his last cap during England’s group-stage victory over Chile and remains under contract with Toulouse until 2029.

He was given a special dispensation to play for England at the tournament, having joined Toulouse in November 2022, after his former club, Wasps, entered administration.

The RFU has come under pressure to loosen the restrictions, and Willis had previously hoped the governing body would reconsider the policy.

The flanker is eligible to play for Ireland through his grandfather, who was born in Belfast, and could, hypothetically, switch allegiances to play for Andy Farrell’s side.

It would be a huge coup for Ireland. But, like England, Farrell’s side also has restrictions on overseas-based players, meaning prospective internationals must represent one of the country’s four provinces: Munster, Ulster, Leinster or Connacht.

Willis has not given up on the prospect of playing Test rugby, and jokingly challenged reporters at this week’s Nuit du Rugby in Paris to find a way around the rules.

“I’m a quarter Irish. But they have the same rules as England,” Willis told The Telegraph and The Times.

He joked to reporters: “You need to do some digging, that’s your job, you find the way [around the rules].”

World Rugby relaxed its international eligibility rules in 2021, allowing players to switch national sides under certain conditions, including having a parent or grandparent born in the respective country and serving a three-year stand-down period from international rugby.

Willis has continued to impress for Toulouse since moving to the south of France and once again proved pivotal as the French club secured a fourth consecutive Top 14 title last season, scoring six tries and making 173 tackles.

Although he admitted he “missed” playing for England, Willis said it was his choice to continue his career in France.

“You know what you sacrifice,” the flanker said.

“It’s something I still want to do, but rules are rules.”

Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City should be stripped of the titles they won during the years they have been found guilty of financial breaches – and says the club’s owners should be removed from their positions.

City have been found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules by an independent commission.

The club continue to deny the breaches, with chief executive Ferran Soriano calling the process a “Premier League conspiracy theory” in a video message to players and staff. The club have confirmed they will appeal against the ruling and have until Friday October 2 to do so.

During the period between the 2009/10 season and 2017/18 season, City won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and one Community Shield.

“I do think Manchester City’s titles they’ve won in this time, or trophies, should be taken off their list,” Sky Sports pundit Carragher said.

However, Carragher is less convinced whether those honours should then be passed onto teams and players who finished second to City in those competitions. Ultimately, he says, the most important part of winning in football – the feeling at the time – has been taken from those players, clubs and their fans by City’s actions.

“Whether other clubs should get them is slightly different,” said Carragher. “But what Manchester City have done is, they’ve not just hurt their own players in terms of no one looks at their trophies and medals now in the same way…

“I’ve been very lucky to win a few medals. I never look at the medal years later. But my mind goes back to a moment, I get a feeling in my stomach. I remember the referee blowing a final whistle of a big game.

“Those players will never get that feeling and it was robbed by Manchester City. That’s what they haven’t got. I don’t think any player will care if you go and give them a medal, and he puts it in the house, in his trophy room, he’ll never look at it.

“It’s not about medals, it’s about feelings, and that’s what Manchester City have robbed.”

Carragher says while he expects Man City as a club to be punished, the owners must pay for their involvement by losing their leadership roles.

“The club are going to get punished,” he said. “You’ve got supporters, players, the club and owners. For me this is all about the owners, the people who are at the top of the club.

“Man City are a wonderful club and have been for a hundred years and will be for hundreds of years going forward. But in terms of what we’re finding out now, I don’t know how the owners can continue in English football.

“We talk about a fit and proper test for owners. What they’ve done for 10 years – and left this stain that will be there for the next 10 years – it starts because they don’t like the word no. When you see the statements – the one from [CEO Ferran] Soriano last night – it’s beggars belief what you’re hearing.

“They have so much power and finance behind them, nobody ever tells them no. Until they move away from the club, I don’t know how this stain is removed from the club.

“City will move on – they will have great teams in the future. But I don’t see how the ownership can continue after what’s happened here and their reaction to it. How can they be surprised? They’ve got irrefutable evidence – well where is it? Put it out there.”

Carra: If I was a City player ‘I’d be furious’

Carragher also discussed what the news means for the legacy of City’s greatest players of the period and the current squad, saying he is sympathetic to their situation, even if some former players are continuing to defend City’s actions right now.

“I’d be furious and I actually feel for the Man City players,” said Carragher. “As a team, what they’ve done is wrong. The Premier League have called it a sham five times in their statement.

“But in terms of individual players, some of them are coming out to bat for the club, that’s normal right now. It must be very difficult for them to see anything that’s going on and to almost feel like a lot of their career is going to have an asterisk with it, or people are just going to call it a sham.

“I think of Kevin De Bruyne, who’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen. He could have played for any team in the world and he still would have been one of the best players. He was fantastic.

“But he chose his club to be Manchester City. Now, one of those reasons he may have chosen, maybe was his wages, that maybe were inflated because of the situation around Man City and what they’ve been charged with.

“But if he sits there at the end of his career now and the whole world looks at his Manchester City career of 10 years of service and look at it as a sham, and I keep using that word, that’s the word the Premier League used, I’d be furious. Absolutely furious that around the world people are looking at my career like that because of what’s going on upstairs.

“Those people have continually told those players – because I have spoken to certain players about it – that everything was fine. They were not going to get done for anything.

“We keep talking about Liverpool or Manchester United, all these players who maybe could get Premier League titles now. And that’s absolutely spot on,

“But I’ve actually been thinking about the Manchester City players and how they feel. What Manchester City’s hierarchy are coming out with in the last couple of days as well, they’re just gaslighting the players, their ex-players, their supporters, because those people want to believe them so much. They’ve got such strong relationships with them, they want to believe it right now.

“I think the longer this goes on, the more you’ll see less support from maybe ex-City players and more frustration about maybe how their careers are going to be viewed by the outside world.”

Esteban Ocon looks set to be without a drive for the 2027 Formula 1 season; the Frenchman will leave Haas after joining from Alpine for the 2025 season; watch Formula 1’s return to Malaysia from Friday morning live on Sky Sports F1 as Sepang hosts the Bahrain Grand Prix