Louis Bielle-Biarrey: Bordeaux star aimed at Northampton

“He is doing his best to cope with it – five years ago he was the one asking for autographs,” says Joel.

“What is frustrating for him sometimes is that it is not possible to please everyone. Sometimes he steps out the dressing room and there are 300 people waiting.

“He has maybe 10, 20, 30 minutes before he gets on the bus, he might still have to grab something to eat and he just doesn’t have time.

“This is what he doesn’t like.”

It is one of the reasons he chose Bordeaux, the port city in south-west France. He visited Racing 92, but found Paris too bustling and busy.

Noel McNamara, Bordeaux’s attack coach, says Bielle-Biarrey has brought his own brand of small-town hustle with him though, leaning on the skills he relied on as an under-sized teenage fly-half.

“Everyone starts off with the pace, but I think that really undersells Louis’ value,” he told Rugby Union Weekly.

“Obviously he is quick, but I have worked with an awful lot of very quick people and it doesn’t always make them exceptional rugby players.

“The thing about Louis is his pace, but also his anticipation, his timing and his preparation though the week.

“His workrate, his attitude and his mindset are first class, and that is an impact he has on people around him.

“They expect things to happen when he has the ball. It gives them the confidence to work a little harder to be in support because Louis makes things happen.”

Joel isn’t sure precisely where the magic comes from.

His own rugby career was brief, playing as a back row at university and then a happy half season at East Kilbride while on an internship in Glasgow in the early 1990s.

Sandrine is from Reunion, a French overseas territory between Madagascar and Mauritius, and, while she isn’t especially sporting, Joel suggests her background might have “spiced up the DNA”.

On Saturday, at the Principality, it is Saints’ turn to try and handle the heat.