Ryan Lamb on the Champions Cup, La Rochelle and growing as a player and a person away from the English game

There is only one new name in the European Champions Cup this season: La Rochelle, or Stade Rochelais as they are known in their home patch on central France’s Atlantic coast, have qualified for the first time to join the old hands of Saracens, Leinster, Clermont Auvergne and the rest. And Ryan Lamb, the English exile who moved from Worcester in the summer to join the Top 14’s biggest surprise package of the past two years, says they intend to make an impact, starting with this weekend’s trip to London to face Harlequins.

“We want to embrace the tournament and to stick to what got us here in the first place, which is playing very fast and playing a lot of rugby,” said Lamb, the 31-year-old former England Saxons fly-half. “The talk all week from our head coach Patrice Collazo is how we’ve earned the right to be here, with the best teams and the best players in Europe, but that the club is always looking to take the next step. I’d say La Rochelle are very much like Exeter. They’ve grown a lot over the last six years and have steadily built something very good.”

In common with Exeter in England, La Rochelle were promoted to their domestic top flight in 2010, but the difference with the French side is they were relegated immediately. Another promotion in 2014 was followed by two so-so ninth-placed finishes. Then…bang. “Last season they were favourites to go down,” said Lamb. But the odds were flipped upside down, as La Rochelle finished top of the Top 14, seven points clear of mighty Clermont, before falling somewhat unluckily to Toulon in the semi-finals of the title play-offs.

Lamb expects to be pushing La Rochelle’s 35-year-old Australian maestro, Brock James, for a starting spot at The Stoop on Saturday evening, having just recovered from a broken rib suffered on what was otherwise one of the best days of the Gloucester-born No 10’s career - when he guided La Rochelle’s 51-point hammering of Clermont a month ago. “It was fantastic, my first start in the Top 14, and against a big club,” Lamb said. “I was quite nervous, a new stand had just been opened at our home ground, the crowd was packed out and the atmosphere was absolutely rocking. But in the first half, we just blew them away with some really good rugby, and everything we tried came off.

“Confidence is high, we’re third in the table after some good wins, including beating Racing last weekend which was good momentum to go into a different competition. Patrice has talked about there being no pressure on us, there’s no relegation in Europe and no one expects us to do too much. We want to show what we can do.”

James has a history of near misses in the tournament with his previous club, Clermont, and Lamb in his own way has been around the continental block, by playing in the European Cup for four English clubs: Gloucester, London Irish, Northampton and Leicester. Now as he enjoys seeing his five-year-old daughter learning a second language, and temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius this week, he is already feeling the benefits of his move – and says more English players should try it.

It is a very touchy subject as the Rugby Football Union’s policy, adhered to by England head coach Eddie Jones, is not to pick foreign-based players for the national team.

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Lamb, who has always been a playmaker of great wit and invention, understands the argument over “protecting” the Premiership from big-name players fleeing across the Channel for higher wages, and also potentially missing England training weeks. But he believes all concerned are missing a trick.

“There’s politics involved in it, the salary cap is a lot more over here, and an England player would get more money if he came here and was still playing international rugby,” said Lamb. “But if you were a young player not around the England set-up, I’d definitely recommend moving - not just in France, but anywhere in the world. You develop especially as a person, not just as a player. It’s a really cool thing.

“James Haskell was a great example, of going abroad and developing. He was playing for England, then he dropped out, he went to France, New Zealand and Japan, and he came back a lot better player. He understood the game a lot more and he worked his way back into the England set-up. [Pau and former Toulon flanker] Steffon Armitage is the most unlucky guy not to have more England caps. They [the RFU] said they’d pick players in exceptional circumstances. Well, he was Europe’s player of the year and won three European Cups – I don’t think you can get any more exceptional than that. Nick Abendanon has flourished over here, as has Dave Strettle [both at Clermont]– and Carl Fearns [the former Bath back-rower who was injured last weekend] is valued massively over here.

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“With the ethos of the Premiership, how it’s set up, a lot of the teams are very similar, the way they play and the kind of drills they run. Coming over here it’s completely different, a different ethos of playing and lifestyle. What they want is very different to England. It does refresh you. It definitely does develop you as a person and as a player, away from everything that you’ve known, getting over the language barrier and living in a different culture. I’m from Gloucester, I didn’t leave Gloucester for 20 years. But this has been a good move and maybe, with hindsight, I should have done it a few years ago.”

Time will tell whether La Rochelle can carry their giant-killing form into Europe – they were leading Toulon 15-6 in that Top 14 semi-final until the centre Pierre Aguillon was sent off – but Lamb reckons they have the talent and game plan to keep surprising the public. “They didn’t have any massive names when they first came up, they struggled in the first year, then they rebuilt. I believe the president Vincent Merling is the longest-serving in the league; certainly he has been here more than 25 years, he’s a passionate guy. The support base is something else and there’s a new £8million training centre, very professional.

“I know the English viewpoint on French teams is they’re not too professional, that they just go out and play, they’re big, strong boys, and if you get into them a little bit, they fold. I don’t think that’s the case here.

“We talk about passing after contact a lot, we have got some big forwards who can compete at set-piece as, and some very fast and very skilful backs. The back row is very good with big, strong ball-carriers like Victor Vito and Levani Botia [a Fijian centre turned flanker]. I feel like we’ve got options all over the place and it’s an armchair ride when you play No.10 in this team.”