‘You’d get a bit of grief off the butcher if you had a home loss’

2004: Northampton The Account

“I remember when I moved to England first the hardest thing to organise was a bank account, oddly enough. It was a lengthy process — I had to go to meet the bank manager and bring the manager of the rugby team with me. Certain things had to be signed off by all three parties, I had to produce testimony from my employers, the rugby club, to prove I was on the level. That was a bit of an ordeal compared to other stuff.”

The Pad

“I’d already organised accommodation, though. I shared an apartment with a player called John Rudd who was moving from Wasps to Northampton the same year I was coming over. He was a pal of Jonny O’Connor, who I knew from Connacht, so he organised that. But there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. There’s a lot of stuff to organise when you’re moving around, stuff you wouldn’t consider, really.

The club were a big help, though, they’re always there to help you. Lenny Newman was the manager when I was there and was hugely helpful, but Saints were a good club – there was never any hint of ‘ah you’ll be able to sort yourself out’ – they’ve invested in you and want to help you. There were lads who came from a lot further afield than me, from South Africa and New Zealand, and they’d stay in club houses near the ground. Whether those houses were close enough so that there was no way they’d miss training, well ...

2008: BriveThe Insurance

“It would have been a jolt if that had been my first move: if I’d gone from Galway to Brive it would have been harder, a far bigger move than Galway to England, but I was apprehensive enough anyway.

The language is the big thing, there’s no getting around that.

I’d forgotten most of my Leaving Cert French at that point, so that was a bit of a worry. It’s a huge thing, if you can’t converse with someone when you’re trying to organise your broadband or your landline for the house or whatever it is you’re trying to do.

Luckily enough, the girlfriend of Barry Davies, who was playing there already, worked with a lot of the foreign lads, and we were lucky because she sorted out house insurance and that. And our phones, thankfully. To be honest I don’t know how we’d have managed without her. Later on I spoke to an English guy who’d left Brive at that stage, Luke Herbert, and when he’d moved to Brive originally he’d had to organise everything off his own bat — he’d be giving out that we were mollycoddled compared to him, but so what? I was glad enough we were.”

The Lingo...

“I made a conscious effort with the French. We had classes once a week but you’ve no real choice but to learn it anyway. Barry’s girlfriend helped us but you’ve got to do stuff yourself, you’re thrown into it. When I left I was comfortable with it, I could have a conversation with people.

I wouldn’t say I was fluent but I was starting to think in French, and they say when you start thinking in the language you’ve a good handle on it and you’re really making progress.

Initially I looked at staying in France rather than coming back to Ireland, I had a couple of options out there, so the language wouldn’t have been an issue, and the French really appreciate it if you make the effort learning it.

For instance, one of the second rows I played with at Brive, for the first year just spoke French — I didn’t think he had a word of English, but the more French I spoke with him the more out of his shell he came, the more English he started talking to me.

I was thinking, ‘I didn’t think you had a word of English’, but it was a case that he saw I was making a genuine effort with the French and probably thought, ‘ah sound, he’s trying, I’ll give something back’.

The Town

“It’s a small town of about 60,000 people, and you get 10,000 at a home game, maybe 15,000 for a big derby. So you’ve got one-sixth of the town at a game. You’re public property. They celebrated the centenary the last year I was there and it was a huge event. The rugby club is a huge part of the social life of the town, so yeah, the cliché is true — you’d get a bit of grief off the butcher if you had a home loss, you wouldn’t be so keen to head out and meet the locals after that.”

The Weather

“It’s so hot for pre-season you’re training early in the morning and late in the evening — it could be close to 40 degrees during the day. But you’d adapt, you’d get used to it, and everyone would suffer — even the French lads would be complaining about the heat after a while.”

The finer things in life

“I never got into the wine side of things, but there’s definitely a few other things I got into while I lived in France. For instance, I wouldn’t have been a big man for coffee before going to France, but now I’d have an espresso every now and again still, after getting a taste for it over there.

Then there’d be foie gras, frog’s legs, snails ... you’re there and you get into it. You appreciate them. I never thought I’d eat steak tartare, for example, and one day I was slagging one of the lads — ‘how the hell can you eat that’ — and I tried a bit and I was taken aback by how tasty it was. I’d enjoy it now.”

2011: LeinsterThe Phone

“This is a new number that I’m using now. I had to get one when I finally came back to Ireland to Leinster. I kept my original Irish number when I first went over to Northampton — I kept it for about a year — but sure it was just costing me money and I never used it anyway.”

The Coffee

“Ah, I wouldn’t be a snob over it, I take what I’m given. But at the back of your mind there’d be a little bit of difference alright. You might be thinking, ‘ah, in France they’d do it this way’, but I wouldn’t be complaining. If you were to come out with ‘they cook it this way in France’ a couple of times in the canteen in Leinster you wouldn’t be long hearing about it.”