When he talks, the rest listen.
Selborne Boome, a big man in every sense, is usually next to speak.
Capped 20 times for South Africa, Boome is the thinking man’s lock and was one of the first to go public about the indignities of Rudolf Straueli’s infamous World Cup Kamp. Not short of a word is Boome, unlike Tom Smith, the loosehead, or Rob Kempson, the tighthead.
That said, Smith has played 56 times for Scotland, has been on two Lions tours and has battled with epilepsy all the while. Kempson, meanwhile, is an individual loved only by those who know him best. With 37 appearances for South Africa, he is among the most destructive props in the world game. As a pair, they don’t say much but then again they don’t have to.
Before The Creature issues his final instructions, Andrew Blowers and Steve Thompson will chip in. Blowers may be relatively light on caps compared with the others — just 11 for the All Blacks — but he is among the most influential. It is said that when Blowers is firing then so, too, are the Saints. The same can be said of Thompson. When his darts are straight it is hard to imagine any side in the Premiership and maybe the rest of Europe, too, being able to stop his team.
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Stuck in the middle of this international who’s who is Damien Browne, Northampton’s who’s-he? summer signing from Connacht. In fairness, it is hard to miss him. Standing 6ft 6in tall and weighing a shade under 20st he is, as his coach Alan Solomons helpfully points out, “a very, very large lad”. The thing about Browne is that his body fat is precisely what it should be. When he was 17 years old he was 18st and “plump” but nowadays pretty much every pound of that enormous bulk is being put to good use, in hitting rucks, in carrying ball, in scrummaging and in tackling.
Last season an unsung Kiwi called Matt Lord bossed the second-row at Franklin’s Gardens and came close to winning the supporters’ player of the year award. Lord is now on the bench, not quite a forgotten man but surely wondering when the Irish colossus that has stolen his place is going to run out of steam. For in the first fortnight of the Premiership, for all the superstars in that Northampton pack, Browne has been as good as, if not better, than any of them.
“Has he surprised me? Not at all,” says Solomons, who once tried to get Browne to Ulster in his time there. “He’s just confirmed my impression of him from afar. He carries well, he smashes rucks, he’s a very good mauler and he’s quite useful at scrum-time. He’s not at all fazed by the big names around him. If anything, it’s the opposite. He doesn’t stand back for anybody. He’s been tremendously impressive so far.”
So much so that of all the high-profile locks in the Premiership, it was Browne who was selected alongside Martin Johnson in the team of the week last weekend, the Galway man getting the nod because of a prodigious role in the slaughter of Harlequins at The Stoop.
It is early days but, equally, it is a far cry from the fears he held when making the move in the summer. Gavin Duffy and Johnny O’Connor have spoken in the past about their emotional links to the west and how difficult it was for them to leave there for Harlequins and Wasps respectively. Browne has family in Galway but for him the decision to leave wasn’t so tough. Coming to terms with the size of the challenge, though, certainly was. “I love Galway because it is such a relaxed place,” he says, “but that can’t be the best for your rugby at times. It can be a bit too relaxed. I just thought, ‘Change of scenery. You’re 23, you’ve no wife or kids, why not go for it? See how good you can be’.
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“One of the main reasons I came over was for the competition. I thought I needed to be pushed a bit more and I also knew this was the place to get the best out of me. Naturally, there was a risk. My main concern before the first game of the season against Bath was about slipping down the pecking order. I was in the team but I knew that if I didn’t cement my position with a good performance then I could get lost very quickly here.
“You could be on the bench, you could lose your edge and from there you could find yourself out of the 22 altogether. Luckily, I played well against Bath until my nose smashed into (Rob) Kempson’s forehead and I had to be taken off in a bit of a daze. It was better again against Harlequins last weekend. Solly’s happy but it’s very early days yet.”
He recalls his Connacht days with the fondness of one who made his debut at the age of 19. He played a lot of games in that time, battled his heart out repeatedly in unforgiving parts of southern France and came out the other side a better player. “No matter how long I play this game, I’ll always remember some of those nights in France. Pouring rain, madly defending our own line and the singing of our dozen travelling supporters carrying around the ground. Special.”
Last December Browne decided he needed to move on. The word went out and Northampton, then under the control of the Kiwi Wayne Smith, were the first to bite. Browne went to England, was struck by the club’s ambition and at the end of January he gave Smith a commitment to join them once his contract with Connacht ran out in the summer.
Now it is all about full-houses and hi-tech equipment. The other week Northampton had an open day and 5,500 people turned up, more than five times the number at Connacht’s opening game of the Celtic League. The rugby club is the talk of the town and as a first-choice player Browne has a level of public recognition he never had in his home place. At Franklin’s Gardens there are three training pitches on site, all of them at least on a par with anything he ever played on in the Celtic League. Sometime next year work will begin at the back of the complex on indoor training facilities and a car park for up to 2,000 cars.
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A computer system called Prozone is set up for the players’ use in plush offices. This technology involves 20 cameras filming every home game from every conceivable angle. Every time you enter a certain zone, the number on your back triggers the software and immediately it begins to record your performance, in yards gained, tackles made and any number of other relevant ways. England and Northampton are the only teams that have it in British rugby. It’s not cheap but for those determined to go the extra mile, it is worth it.
And then there are his teammates. Seven of the first-choice team are brand new and many of them are housed in an area of the city now affectionately known as Krige Park. He feels he can learn from all of them, feed off their experience and maybe, just maybe, attract Eddie O’Sullivan’s attention.
“That’s the aim but it’s a long-term aim. Right now, it’s about Gloucester (whom they played yesterday) and Leicester and Wasps after that. It’s about adding to our victories and the challenge of testing myself against the likes of Martin Johnson. You only get one crack at this so you may as well give it everything.”
Since size matters in rugby, was there ever any doubt that the big man would stand out?