Let’s get ready to rumble. Not since Martin Offiah was in his pomp at Widnes and Wigan has there been a rugby predator quite like Lesley “The Volcano” Vainikolo. You don’t get a nickname like that without scoring firepower to back it up.

Rugby league has nurtured and been blessed by prolific talents whose feats have translated into the 15-man code: Jason Robinson for England, Lote Tuqiri for Australia, Offiah in the twilight of his extraordinary league career and now Vainikolo. The common factor is their prodigious scoring ability on the wing, the one position where there is a compatibility between the codes.

Henry Paul and Iestyn Harris, both now back in league, were half backs; Andy Farrell, a loose forward in league, was confusingly introduced as a flanker and ended up a centre (a position he never filled in his original code); while Chev Walker and Karl Pryce, a couple of highly dangerous league centres, are back in the Super League this season after a year struggling to make an impression in union.

Vainikolo, 28, at least comes with some union pedigree: four union-playing brothers, one of whom blasted past Jonah Lomu for three tries in a New Zealand under-21 trial. He is proving a willing student in terms of positional play and in the alien concept of kicking out of hand, a skill mastered by Robinson in his crossing of the codes.

But it is as a charged powerhouse knocking off all-comers that he is a peerless contributor, whether in league or union. Power and pace — attributes recognised by both codes. Harness the two out wide and you have an unstoppable force, one England have not recently had at their disposal. Long range, from a few yards out, Vainikolo always has the try line on his horizon. There are few more direct runners, one who can also appear at outside centre, where he would sometimes pop up for Bradford. There are vulnerabilities, of course. Kick down his throat and Vainikolo will wreak havoc. Get him turning and bending with carefully placed grubbers and errors are not uncommon. Early on in his career at Bradford, he wobbled like a stricken oak in a storm under the high ball, but perfected his technique and developed his confidence to such an extent that when Leeds Rhinos attempted to catch him out on one occasion, the Volcano performed a mighty take, erupted from his blocks and thundered the length of the field.

League’s physical attrition was grinding on his troublesome knees and union, minus the constant backpedalling to form the ten-metre gap and wearying level of tackling, is offering a new lease of life for a player annually under the surgeon’s knife at Bradford.

Cornrows, pigtails, afro, beaded braids? Vainikolo will fuss over his hair-do for England but let his opponents worry about the damage he can do to them.