Noon wants to grab centre stage against Munster after getting lost in France
THE first thing Jamie Noon says is sorry. He is ringing to say he’ll be late for the interview; he’s got the builders in, and they’ve sauntered into his house in Brive-la-Gaillard 40 minutes behind schedule, without as much as a shrug.
“Not even an apology. How very French!” he jokes upon his arrival. Broad of shoulders, jaw and Yorkshire tones, Noon is a reassuringly friendly, personable fella. He even pays for the coffee.
The 38-times capped England centre is already part of the furniture here in Brive. His commitment to both his club and the French lifestyle has won him fans on and off the field, he’s bought a house here and takes huge pride in the fact that his three children are now bi-lingual.
“They speak fluently with an accent, and can switch it on and off,” he enthuses. “They’re picking it up so quickly, we can’t keep up. Before we arrived, that was something we thought would be beneficial for them and give them options in the future.”
While the children are perfectly at home in the Limousin region, their dad has embraced the culture wholeheartedly too. “In the summer there are farmers’ markets, you go along and buy your produce but they put on a barbecue, tables and chairs all set up, you go and you cook what you’ve just bought,” he said.
“There’s a real regional spirit, everyone gets together and brings their picnics.”
There’s even talk of life after rugby here, though Noon admits his ‘business’ French is not up to scratch just yet.
Upon moving to Brive in 2009, he figured he was going to a club Martin Johnson and his staff would have to watch; Riki Flutey would be alongside him in midfield, Andy Goode was at out-half and Steve Thompson packing down at hooker.
“There were so many variables to think about at the time, but I spoke to Martin (Johnson) about it and he said, ‘If you’re playing well wherever you are, that should be fine’,” he explains.
“Playing alongside Riki, I felt that would be an opportunity to showcase what I was doing too, and it wouldn’t just be me heading off to a club miles away, on my own. But it was a big thing that they couldn’t see all the games here. Riki was injured a lot of the year too….and I’ve never played for England since.”
Noon did earn a call-up to the 2010 Six Nations squad as a replacement for the injured Dan Hipkiss, but ended up making up the numbers at training, while forlornly watching others get the game-time. England have predominantly used a core of the same 25 players each week. Consequently, they’ve improved as they seem to understand each other pretty well.
Noon will never give up on his England dream, however; he is wired for durability. Until a knee ligament injury sidelined him for six weeks this term, he’d also played nearly every minute of Brive’s games in the past two seasons or so. He should surely therefore be in a position to provide some insight into that question which perplexes rugby fans the world over — why don’t French sides travel well?
“This year we’ve gone away and won some good games; we beat Stade Francais in Paris recently, which we haven’t done in 30 years.
“Some days they can really put on a great performance, but sometimes you just tell the week before that they’re just relaxed (about it). There is so much pressure to win at home in this league, not only in terms of where you are in the table, but in terms of the public.”
You get the impression he’s relishing the distraction of Munster’s imminent arrival in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final. “It’s really nice to play against different sides. It was great to play against Sale (in the Pool stages). Now we have a quarter-final, and I’m really pleased that it’s against someone different again.
“It’s a massive game for us, an opportunity to… not so much save our season, but really show people that although we’re lying down the bottom, we’re not as bad as that.”
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