“People think that if you are a professional sportsman you should be training all the time, but that is not the case,” Bateman said. In the case of the Wales centre Allan Bateman it has been a question of more free time making him a better player. As he looks forward to being part of a classic all-Lions midfield contest at Twickenham on Saturday – he and Scott Gibbs for Wales against Jeremy Guscott and Will Greenwood for England – the 32-year-old double international points to the time he now has away from training and playing as the key to his rebirth as a union international. Now Castaignede is in pole position to lead France into the World Cup, a huge responsibility for such slender shoulders “Rugby is a little more serious now,” he said.

THE mark of a great player is that he always seems to have time on his hands. “But I try to keep the old spirit and I always feel confident in what I do, in life or in rugby.”. He was a key figure in Toulouse’s defeat of Cardiff, scoring one try, setting up a second with a looping break and kicking a drop goal in the final minutes to seal the win. Newcastle led the bidders when Castaignede’s contract with Toulouse ran out, but the influence of the French Federation helped to thwart another high profile transfer to the nouveaux riches of English rugby and Castaignede moved to Castres, a few miles to the east of Toulouse, where the fly-half berth was vacant.

The European Cup final brought Castaignede’s skills to a wider audience. His father Pierre, a gifted stand-off himself, made sure the legend was duly absorbed.His international debut came at the age of 19, against Romania in 1994; a tougher examination was set by the All Blacks in Toulouse the same year where his two conversions and a long-range penalty helped France to an unexpected win. The danger against Scotland is that we think we have already won. Two years ago, we had a really bad match there and we have to prove that was an accident.”Castaignede’s appeal extends beyond the mere appreciation of his mercurial running and passing. His little-boy-lost looks melt mothers’ hearts from north to south and his rugby pedigree would pass the test of the sternest historian. A student of chemical engineering, he was brought up in the south-west of France and honed his skills from the age of five at the Mont-de-Marsan club which produced the great Boniface brothers and Benoit Dauga. No wonder that the success of the experimental side for the inaugural match at the Stade de France last weekend was greeted with outpourings of relief from Paris to Pau.