He looked at the vision of the club, and the style of play.” “He said he loved the style and the way we’re playing and thought he would fit very nicely into it. “He likes the style of play here having watched us very closely and it was quite interesting some of the comments he was passing over as a consequence of his scrutiny of the side. “More than anything when I sat down with Maxime he bought into the vision of the club and where we’re going,” he said. Never mind the climate, Richards was impressed with the homework Mermoz had done on the Falcons. Although I told him it was 28C on average in the summer here and doesn’t drop below 17 in the winter, he didn’t quite believe me.”

“He’s from the north of France and where he’s from it can get down to -10C, -15C in the middle of winter so the cold weather doesn’t worry him at all. There was a camera crew here and they walked straight past him! But being French, nobody would recognise him, to be honest with you. “What was beautiful was that nobody recognised him when he did come. “He’s been to have a look around,” director of rugby Dean Richards explained. It did not stop him wandering around Kingston Park unnoticed, though. With Top 14 titles at Toulouse, Perpignan and Toulon, European Champions Cups with the latter pair and a starting appearance in a World Cup final, Mermoz has an impressive CV. The 30-year-old centre is Newcastle’s first signing for next season, joining from Leicester. Maxime Mermoz managed to walk around Kingston Park unnoticed before he signed for Newcastle Falcons, but the French centre was much more clued-up about his new club.

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