Most players returning home from the French Top 14 have had a life-enhancing experience and Dan Robson is the latest example. The former England scrum-half spent four seasons in the shadow of the Pyrenees with Pau, mixing it with the likes of Antoine Dupont and Maxime Lucu, before rejoining his first Prem employers, Gloucester, this summer. “No more croissants for breakfast,” he sighs, slightly wistfully. “But it’s good to be back. My waistline is thanking me.”
Ask him how much he would recommend a spell abroad to others, though, and the word “amazing” swiftly follows. Not only were his two young sons, Laker and Roux, born in Pau – “It’s always going to have a special place in our hearts as a family” – but he also much enjoyed his regular meetups with Jack Willis, a close mate at Wasps before the club’s financial collapse forced both to start afresh across the Channel.
The challenge now is for the new English Prem season, which kicks off on Friday night, to show itself to be of a similar on-field calibre to its French counterpart. Robson, for instance, has witnessed first-hand the significant improvement in Willis’s game since he joined Toulouse and reckons the back-row would be a serious asset for England should the eligibility rules ever be tweaked.
“It’s pretty scary where his level’s at. You want the Premiership still thriving but would I like to see a special circumstance clause? I don’t think anyone would begrudge a couple of ‘wildcards’ in a World Cup year. As an English person I want the best people involved in the next World Cup.”
Coming up against Dupont was also educational, even by French standards where top-class No 9s are de rigueur. “Dupont is the one. You can feel the energy and confidence coming off the other team when he’s on the pitch.” If it tempts opponents to try to shut him down single-handedly, so much the better. “That’s what really good players like him want. They want people to go outside their system and go and hit him because he’s good enough to make the late decision to put someone else in a hole.”
Already it should be obvious why Gloucester wanted the well-travelled 34-year-old to come back and jostle for the No 9 shirt with Caolan Englefield, 11 years after having left Kingsholm, where he made 80 appearances. Consistency, for various reasons, has not been a Cherry and White characteristic for some time. Now, with the Welsh international duo of Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan in the vanguard and the highly respected Chris Boyd on board as technical director, there is tangible optimism for the new season.
Having been involved in one impressive rebuild at Pau, who have steadily risen from relegation contenders to the upper rungs of the Top 14 table, Robson sees no reason why Gloucester cannot do something similar. “We’ve got everything we could possibly want here to succeed,” he suggests. “We’re not wanting for anything, which is great. There are no excuses. It just adds that little bit of pressure to look at each individual and say: ‘We’ve got to perform now.’”
From afar, like everyone else, he has been pondering why Gloucester have not featured in the playoffs since 2018-2019. It is 19 years since they last topped the end-of-season table, since when the Shed faithful have largely had to be stoic. “It’s been all over the shop a little bit on the pitch and that’s the big challenge for us this year,” stresses Robson. “To be really consistent and understand that, while we’re not going to win every week, we need to be performing in every game, putting teams under pressure and understanding how we can win.”
Those ambitions will be tested immediately in round one at Exeter, who battled their way to last season’s final and were not too far away from ruining Northampton’s day. Exeter are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their move to Sandy Park, with their debut Premiership win against Gloucester in 2010 an indelible memory, and will supply an immediate test of character. As Robson acknowledges: “It’s always tough to play them at Sandy Park but we’ve got a great opportunity to go there and really test ourselves.”
No one could possibly dispute that Robson, long ago nicknamed “Dobby” after the house elf in Harry Potter, is worthy of a slice of late career luck. For a while he was the sharpest footballing scrum-half in the country, only to spend three years in and around the England squad without gaining a full cap. Even after Eddie Jones belatedly relented in 2019, Robson’s career was then cruelly interrupted by deep vein thrombosis and all of his 14 England caps were earned from the bench.
after newsletter promotion
On top of that came the Wasps debacle in October 2022 which scattered a promising squad far and wide, with no certainty of outcome. Small wonder Robson sounds quietly delighted to be given another go in the Prem. “My body feels good still and mentally I feel better than ever. I feel pretty calm and level-headed … and I still love competing. Until that love starts withering I’ll keep trucking along.”
While, ideally, winning some more big games as well. Robson singles out Phil Cokanasiga as a teammate to watch this season – “If he gets his game going it’s going to look good” – but his days as an exile in France have also reinforced the importance of making your own luck.
“The style of rugby in the Prem is brilliant; every team will be saying the same things about wanting to start fast and put in a big performance. It’s going to be exciting, edge-of-the-seat stuff and hopefully we can be a part of that. But, ultimately, I’ve not come back for a jolly. I want to come back and be successful.”
