Top 14: Biarritz ready to unleash Karmichael Hunt; Yannick Nyanga out for five months

“He has enormous potential and a great desire to succeed,” said Isaac of the former Brisbane Broncos NRL star. “We’ll leave him the time to adapt, but with such a player that should come quite quickly,” he added.

Hunt has come in for some flak back home in Australia, with some labelling him a mercenary as he begins the second step of an unprecedented treble – playing professional rugby league, rugby union and Australia rules football. But that seems somewhat harsh in an era of professional sport, and where a player’s career can be ended at any given time by injury.

Certainly Hunt’s arrival in France is the cause of some excitement, especially down on the Basque coast where Biarritz are currently riding high on the back of a seven-match winning streak. They are also playing a more attack-minded style of rugby this season, as confirmed by their five-try demolition of Gloucester at the weekend when American speedster Takudzwa Ngwenya notched a superb hat-trick. Hunt’s arrival should add further potency, while the return to fitness of England full-back Iain Balshaw will also be welcomed after the World Cup winner was forced to sit out the past six weeks due to torn abdominal muscles. He is now back in full training, along with young winger Paul Couet-Llanes, and both could be in their squad for Saturday’s mouth-watering trip to Stade Toulousain.

One player definitely out of that match, however, is Stade’s international flanker Yannick Nyanga. The 28-year-old was stretchered off with a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee during Toulouse’s Heineken Cup win away to Harlequins on Saturday. He was operated on in Toulouse on Tuesday and is now expected to be sidelined for up to five months.

Stade Francais have a further opportunity to underline their resurgence under Jacques Delmas when they take on defending champions Perpignan on Saturday. The Paris giants are unbeaten in six matches since the former Biarritz coach succeeded Ewen McKenzie, and confidence will have been further bolstered by Sunday’s last-gasp away win at Bath in the Heineken Cup.

Saturday’s game marks the first of five Top 14 matches club president Max Guazzini has switched to the Stade de France, and advance ticket sales have already surpassed 70,000. Among the assortment of pre-match entertainment this time out will be a ‘mini-concert’ by singer Florent Pagny.

Racing-Métro 92 have also signed a ‘medical joker’, with young South African Willem Le Roux joining the Parisians as cover for injured Italian centre Andrea Masi.

Le Roux, 19, arrives from the University of Stellenbosch and can play at either centre or fly-half.

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson emphasized the importance Toulon have attached to this season’s Amlin Challenge Cup by describing their win against Saracens as “a great result”.

French teams have been notoriously indifferent to Europe’s second tier competition in recent years, but the carrot of Heineken Cup qualification for the winners is clearly driving the likes of Toulon and Bayonne to take it seriously.

Both have won their opening two matches – fielding strong sides in the process – and Toulon now look odds on to sail through to the quarter-finals. Their next two ACC games (in December) are at home and away against Italian side Rugby Rovigo.

“We have started the season pretty well, but the odd match has escaped us over here when we have lost in the last call of the game. But things are coming together and it is a great thing to be part of,” confirmed Wilkinson. “There is a building process going on and the ambition is there and the desire is super-high,” he added.