Fame and Scottish rugby players are not close bedfellows. Most could walk down Princes Street in Edinburgh or across George Square in Glasgow in their international kit without anyone noticing.
So for Rory Lamont, it was something of a culture shock when he arrived in the rugby hotbed of Toulon, where Jonny Wilkinson has been grabbing the headlines and every player is a public figure in a city where fans believe it is their right to say exactly how you played.
It has worked for him, though. With Hugo Southwell on fire at Stade Français, and Chris Paterson having missed only three kicks at goal all season, it was still the younger of the Lamont brothers that Andy Robinson turned to as the full back in the opening game of the autumn internationals. Stiff competition, a huge responsibility but a challenge that he is relishing, just as he did upping sticks and heading for a career in the southeast of France.
“It’s certainly different,” he said yesterday. “The culture is completely different from anything I have experienced. Just living in a town that eats and breathes rugby after living in Glasgow and Manchester, both predominantly footballing cities, is a massive difference. I doubt if you will find more passionate fans anywhere in the world than at Toulon.
“It is a great atmosphere, but the people certainly don’t hold back on telling you what they think was wrong if you lost or had a bad game personally. It is a new team with a few teething problems, but we are undefeated at home and have been very unfortunate with our away games, losing two or three away only in the final seconds.”
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He and his brother Sean, who moved from Northampton to the Scarlets in Llanelli, are perfect examples of how it can take nothing more than a change of club to reinvigorate their passion for the game and both have been rewarded with recalls to the national team, pairing them for the first time since the 2007 Rugby World Cup, two injury-ravaged years ago.
“We’ve both been unlucky,” Rory Lamont said, reflecting ruefully on the catalogue of muscles, ligaments and bones that have been strained, stretched and smashed since the World Cup ended at the quarter final stage. “It is really exciting to get back playing for Scotland again. It has been long time for me, and to have my brother alongside makes it even better. He has hit good form after his bad knee injury and is relishing his time at the Scarlets.”
Rory might have stayed at Sale, or could even have moved back to Glasgow — negotiations did not last long after the budget restrictions there became clear — but instead decided to follow Philippe Saint-Andre to Toulon, where he is now one of half a dozen British players who join forces within a league-of-nations club where Argentina, South Africa, Australia, various Pacific Islands and Georgia have representatives alongside the French.
The playing style, he admits, is nothing like anything he has experienced in his career, though mostly the biggest challenge he faces is to keep his patience. “The rugby is certainly different, predominantly because of the referees,” he said. “I would hate to say they are inconsistent, but you are lucky if you get to three phases and the risks of playing out of your own half are huge. At Toulon, we have a very good kicking game, and I have had to adapt.”
Like all the Scots, he knows that it will be a hard, fast game against Fiji, one of the toughest sides in world rugby. But if he can lead a winning charge, this Scotland international could soon be as recognisable in his home country as in France.