In the hour before kick-off, while teams warm up, there are abundant opportunities for people watching. It was particularly intriguing to monitor the Montpellier half of the pitch ahead of their recent meeting with Harlequins at The Stoop. 

Due to heavy squad rotation, players as talented as Paolo Garbisi, Italy’s star fly-half, and Brandon Paenga-Amosa, the Australia hooker, were surplus to requirements. Travelling reserves for the Top 14 front-runners, they appeared more relaxed.  

Handré Pollard slapped 50-metre goal-kicks and Bruce Reihana, the three-cap All Black who became an icon at Northampton Saints, trotted about in his role as skills coach. Then, on the 22, Paul Willemse was engaged in a good-natured conversation with a far more diminutive figure clad in a baseball cap. 

Alexandre Ruiz was a referee good enough to oversee 14 Test matches between 2014 and 2020, and travelled to the 2019 World Cup in Japan to run touch. At the end of last season, though, aged just 34, he stepped away from officiating to join Montpellier’s staff.