Harrison still has love for the Saints as he savours life in France

And that is certainly the case for former Franklin's Gardens favourite Teimana Harrison.

Though he is now looking forward to his second season in France with Pro D2 side Provence, Harrison still speaks with such enthusiasm about the black, green and gold.

He watches as many Saints games as he can on the television, and he still speaks with great excitement about his old club's chances in the season ahead.

And one signing in particular has whetted his appetite as he looks forward to watching Phil Dowson's men in action during the 2023/24 campaign.

"Every chance I get, I watch (Saints) because we always play Thursdays and Friday evenings over here," Harrison said.

"The system here is really good because they want every game to be on TV so Pro D2 plays Thursdays and Fridays then the Top 14 is on Fridays and Saturdays.

"Every chance I got, every time Saints were on TV, I jumped on and watched it.

"I watched two games against London Irish and I watched Tom Pearson do his thing. Lucky he's coming to Saints!

"I'm actually excited to watch him play under (Sam) Vesty and the new coaching staff.

"With Juarno (Augustus) and Luds (Lewis Ludlam), it's going to be an awesome back row!"

It's no surprise that he admires the style of Pearson, who shows the same kind of tenacity and sheer refusal to be stopped that Harrison displayed during his Saints career.

His 11-year stay at the Gardens, which included 185 appearances for Saints, came to an end last summer as he pursued a new life in France.

And though he had a huge job to settle in at Provence due to a long-term knee injury suffered during the final stages of his career at the Gardens, Harrison has taken it all in his stride.

"The recovery went pretty smoothly and I made it back within nine months, which is the normal time to come back from an ACL," said Harrison, who suffered an ACL rupture after agreeing to join Provence.

"Surprisingly, I got back into it relatively smoothly and I played four games but after being out for so long, a couple of calf tweaks and stuff kept me out.

"Towards the end of the season it was unusual because they have this rule that means you have to average a certain per cent of French players playing for the club and if the club makes that per cent, they get a bit of money.

"So the last two or three games, they were just like 'we're not playing any non-French players so you guys can just chill and enjoy life'."

Harrison has done that, but he has also put in a huge amount of hard work on and off the pitch, which will come as no surprise to anyone who watched him at Saints.

"We're pretty lucky here at Provence because we've got a good group of physios and strength and conditioning guys so they made it really easy," he said.

"The weather did help because I was in the pool pretty much every day and that helped me get moving a lot quicker.

"It was hard enough not knowing the language but to then be separate from the group for seven or eight months, it was pretty hard.

"But we had a really good group here and I managed to find other ways to get integrated into the group.

"We had a good group of boys and they made me feel comfortable pretty quick."

Harrison's settling in process was helped by the fact that the man they recruited as injury cover for him was one of his friends from back home in New Zealand.

Kiwi forward Carl Axtens was drafted in by Provence when it became clear that Harrison would require a long rehabilitation period.

Harrison said: "I can speak a little bit of French now. It's harder to understand and I can hold a conversation in French now.

"It was one of my things when I came over that I wanted to be able to speak the language because I know if someone comes to England and they don't even try to speak the language we wouldn't try as much with them.

"I wanted to give it a a good crack so I paid for a French tutor, took Skype lessons every week and tried to get up to a decent standard.

"What also helped was that my injury replacement was one of my mates from back in New Zealand and he had been playing at Toulouse for six years so he speaks really good French and he's helped me a lot.

"He's a Kiwi fella, a wicked player and he won the Top 14 with Toulouse.

“Luckily enough, he's stuck around and it's nice having a good mate with me here.

"Before I'd even moved out here, they'd sorted his deal out and we arrived at about the same time."

Harrison is hugely grateful that both he and Axtens were part of the squad last season, knowing he could easily have been left without a club after his injury at Saints.

"It would have been cheaper for them (Provence) just to pull my contract and gone off and chased someone else but they've stuck with me and I've tried to give as much back as I can," Harrison said.

"I've tried to help as many boys as I could while I was injured, just taking them through breakdown drills and other bits and pieces.

"Then when I got back training, I've given 100 per cent and tried to add my experience to help out any way I could."

Harrison's Provence debut came from the bench against Biarritz back in February and he has gone on to feature in games against Vannes, Rouen and Colomiers.

He said: "My return was actually quite smooth apart from my first two interactions in my first game back because I went to carry and I carried a bit too high so I got smoked! We ended up scoring but then I dropped the kick-off!

"But it was smooth getting back into it, I made a good few line-breaks and felt like I wasn't worrying about my knee. I got the leg drive back into my game."

Harrison has now returned to pre-season training following his mandatory rest period, during which he enjoyed a week on holiday in Thailand.

And he is gearing up for what he hopes will be a huge season that will allow him to show Provence what he is truly made of.

"I'm excited for this season and hopefully the injuries have passed by so I can get back to playing some good rugby," the 30-year-old said.

"I said it about the Covid year, but I hope missing this year has added another year on to my career but we'll see how the body holds up.

"It's sorted itself out and I've found a good routine to stay fit and keep playing.

"I've got one more year but as long as I keep my injuries at bay, I'm relatively confident I'll get another contract here.

"Fingers crossed I can stay fit and get back to playing how I was at Saints.

"It will hopefully be a good year."

Harrison still misses elements of life at Saints, but there is no doubt that he has acclimatised well to life across the Channel.

"I guess in a way it is difficult (to be away from Northampton) because it was all I'd known in my adulthood up to this point, but I've come over here and there's such a good group around me," he said. "It's almost like a home away from home again.

"Learning the language, I've made good mates with some of the French boys.

"The start was probably the hardest because when I was in Northampton I could walk around town and get to meet some supporters, which was pretty awesome, but coming over here, we get decent crowds but nobody in town recognises you and you don't speak to many supporters.

"It's definitely a big change but I enjoy it here and it's definitely a decent spot to be in."