Northampton reap benefits of Grayson's glorious renaissance

Paul Grayson has been basking in the warm glow of an Indian summer for almost a year now – an appropriate state of affairs, since he was widely considered to be up the sporting Ganges without a paddle this time last season – and Northampton continue to benefit from the light and heat generated by English club rugby's senior outside-half. At 31, he is fitter and more motivated than ever, and is tapping into fresh reserves of know-how and technique. "There is loads of stuff in the back of the locker, waiting to be brought out," he said.

Grayson plans to produce these treasures over the next 18 months or so, beginning this afternoon when Northampton host Cardiff in a highly significant Heineken Cup pool match, and then contemplate his future: whether to stick around for another season or so, or move into full-time coaching. It will be an awkward call, thanks in large measure to the increasing richness of his form, but at least it will be his to make. Early last term, judgement was being passed upon him – John Steele, then the main man at Franklin's Gardens, saw him as his third-choice stand-off and had taken to playing him at full-back – and in the words of Matthew Dawson, Grayson's half-back partner of long standing, he "didn't know where was going or what to do for the best".

Dawson's summary is not disputed by Grayson. "It is certainly true that I started questioning myself; I was no longer sure that what I was doing was right," he admitted. "And yes, I did consider moving away from playing and towards coaching. It would have been easy. However, it would also have been a cop-out. When I looked really hard at myself, I knew I still had something there, something to offer. So when Wayne Smith arrived from New Zealand as head coach and challenged me to prove I could still do it at this level, he basically turned on the pilot light and said: 'Right, it's up to you to turn up the gas.' "

Smith, the former All Black outside-half and Test coach, has been guilty of the odd boo-boo since surfacing in the East Midlands 12 months ago: he was badly out-smarted by the London Irish tacticians in the Powergen Cup final at Twickenham, and got his substitutions in a twist in a big Premiership match at Gloucester in November. But generally, his touch has been of Midas quality. Most importantly, he has brought both carrot and stick to bear on a dressing room full of strong characters, and restored a sense of collective purpose.

In Grayson's case, it was 99 per cent carrot and only an infinitesimal amount of stick. "The main thing from my perspective was that Wayne knew next to nothing about me: he was a stranger with no preconceptions. What he saw in me is for him to say, but what I saw in him was a kindred spirit. We think along similar lines, we have a similar temperament and a similar boiling point. I don't have Wayne's work ethic – I think that's a genetic failing, so I blame my dad rather than myself – but I have always thought hard about my rugby and always been interested in new ideas. Wayne appreciated that, I think.

"He also gave me a clear idea of how I might develop my game and that clarity came from personal experience. Here was a former All Black telling me that he played his best rugby in the last couple of years of his career, when he knew what he needed to know and understood how to let it all come out. I'd been around the block a few times and I'd played international rugby, but this was new and fresh. It excited me. When he said: 'You've told me what you think you can do, so go out and do it', I was ready." Ready enough to steer the Saints to six wins in seven Premiership outings at the end of the 2001-02 campaign – 117 points on the board, a lucrative Heineken Cup place in the bank – and more than ready to take advantage of any vulnerability shown by the club up the road. Northampton's epoch-ending victory at Leicester last weekend, in which Grayson's kicking game was a stand-out feature, was one for the annals and a clear sign that the European champions of 2000 had finally drawn alongside the European champions of 2001 and 2002.

"Perspective is important: we won a game at Welford Road after Leicester had won 50-odd in a row there," Grayson said, carefully. "But it hadn't been the greatest of feelings, watching our neighbours win everything and do everything better than everyone else for so long, so to go there and win the way we did – by putting in more tackles than in any game I can remember us playing, and scoring three tries from three opportunities – was very rewarding. Some of the Leicester boys said afterwards that they thought it was on the cards, that they felt they had it coming. But that doesn't alter the fact that the job had to be done.

"It will do us good, for sure. I think this club is on the verge of something, that everyone involved – from the players and the coaches to the people responsible for giving us the wonderful stadium we now have – is preparing to push on to the next level. But I feel that about English club rugby as a whole. I think the Premiership teams have reached the stage where they believe they can expand their games and extend their horizons. I just hope the referees pick up on that and keep pace. Nothing annoys me more than a referee whistling for some piddling offence at a ruck, just because he's being assessed and has to follow the letter of the law. What we want is sympathy and encouragement, the kind of support you get from southern hemisphere officials but is all too rare up here."

If the thought of Grayson pushing back the frontiers of attacking rugby jars with those who dismissed him as a one-act outside-half whose idea of flexibility was to apply boot to ball with varying degrees of force, they should remember two things. First, the 26-all draw with an a vintage All Black side at Twickenham in 1997, when Grayson ran and passed with such adventure that he might have been a Welshman of the golden age; and second, the fact that kicking strategy is absolutely central to success at professional level and may well decide the outcome of next year's World Cup. "It's as massive a part of the game as it ever was, but with major differences," he explains. "Rule changes put a stop to the 'hoof it down the field and see what happens' plan, so we've moved into a really creative phase in which intelligent kicking can lead directly to try-scoring chances. Look at rugby league or Aussie Rules and you'll see two sports that place a great deal of emphasis on the kicking game. People like Dave Alred [the England kicking coach] saw this coming five years ago, and I did a lot of work with him then that is only just beginning to bear fruit.

"So yes, I'm looking forward to the next year and a half. I'm not a gym rat, that's for sure, but my fitness is good; as long as I can have my nap in the afternoon, I'll be up for whatever comes along. I still consider it fun, this rugby lark, even when I'm on the wrong end of a bollocking on a wet Saturday afternoon in the back end of beyond. When I sit down and think about it, the same line always comes to mind: 'Never forget that you could be doing a real job.' "