SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: You couldn’t make it up… now England are in big, big trouble. Billy Vunipola’s red card shows they have FAILED to learn any lessons from Owen Farrell’s situation

I can’t believe that after all that has happened with the Owen Farrell situation, no lessons have been learned by the England team when it comes to dangerous tackling.

Billy Vunipola’s red card against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday was almost identical to that of Farrell and Wales’ Taine Basham at Twickenham.

You couldn’t make it up. It puts England in big, big trouble. They now likely face Argentina in their World Cup opener without two of their key players in Farrell and Vunipola.

The latter was the only specialist No. 8 picked by Steve Borthwick for the tournament and if he is suspended, England will now be very exposed at the back of the scrum.

Like Farrell, Vunipola deserved to be sent off. He had time to hit Andrew Porter low and wrap his arms in the tackle. There was no one else near the Irish player.

Vunipola’s challenge was similar to Owen Farrell’s (middle) tackle on Wales’ Taine Basham

England head coach Steve Borthwick chose Vunipola as his only specialist number eight in his World Cup squad

Vunipola did neither and hit the Irishman high and with his shoulder.

It was a clear red card and exactly the same as Farrell’s in that he was initially shown a yellow card before the new bunker system upgraded it.

The bunker system is excellent. But just because it’s in place doesn’t mean referees can’t give outright red cards and sit on the fence by going for yellow in the first instance. They can still make bold calls themselves.

Vunipola’s was a clear straight red card. There was no attempt to tackle properly and neither he nor England can complain. I just hope the disciplinary process surrounding the No. 8 is handled better than the one involving Farrell. To be honest, it can’t really get any worse.

The Vunipola incident will again dominate the headlines. It is likely that both he and Farrell will now miss the start of the World Cup, at least the match against Argentina.

They will probably be suspended this week.

Without Farrell, England has George Ford and Marcus Smith as No. 10 options. I thought Ford played quite a game in Dublin. But with number 8 it’s a different story.

Looking back is a wonderful thing, but I’m sure Steve Borthwick will regret his decision to leave Alex Dombrandt out of his 33-man World Cup squad.

Both Owen Farrell (left) and Billy Vunipola (right) are now likely to miss the start of England’s World Cup campaign

Vunipola was initially shown a yellow card before being upgraded to red by the referees

Ben Earl and Lewis Ludlam can play at the back of the scrum, but are not specialists there.

Still, it is likely that one of them will have to intervene now and in a big game against Argentina.

It’s fair to say that England’s three World Cup warm-up games so far have not gone well.

England were beaten five tries to one in Dublin and had Ireland kicked their goals it would have been a lot worse.

The defeat was no surprise. Ireland was a craftsman and got the job done.

Again, England had nothing in their back line play. The difference between them and Ireland behind the scrum was like chalk and cheese.

England’s line-out went well. But on almost every occasion, they went for a forward ride.

You have to do more than that to beat a team like Ireland.

I sound like a broken record, but England just don’t play with enough pace.

Unfortunately their performance against Ireland was quite dull and uninspired and another red card capped off another disappointing encounter.

I’m really not sure where England is going from here.