“Right away you’re looking for physical potential,” Morris said. “He played a few games at flyhalf and you could see he had the contact skills. I was running the water in the early Wednesday games and you could see he had something in him, even though he was playing for the fifths. He is very good at the late pass and at making decisions at the win line, being a fly-half who had contact footwork. He had an outrageous ball grip with his big hands, which was perfect for unloading and outwork.
An intensive muscle building and conditioning program awaited Flament who arrived in Loughborough weighing 14 stone (he now weighs around 18 stone) and a sad farewell to his No 10 day. “I knew this would eventually happen,” Flament said. “Looking at myself in a mirror, I knew I couldn’t play fly-half forever. If I wanted to play professionally, I was quite happy to change positions.
Even in his second year, Flament was still playing for the third XV but his development accelerated when he spent a placement year in Argentina playing for Club Newman in Buenos Aires. On his return to Loughborough he was now part of the first team in the BUCS University System and National One, which he described as a ‘hardening process’.
He was also coming on the radar of several Premiership clubs. When Morris moved to Scottish London as director of rugby he recommended him to Saracens, but before they could move he was snapped up by the Wasps. “I still remember getting the call from my coach Gerard Mullen telling me Wasps were interested in giving me a contract,” Flament said. “Getting that contract was everything I dreamed of, everything I worked for.”
Upon entering the Wasps academy, Flament quickly struck up a bromance with Barbeary, the hooker-earner-rower prodigy. “He was a very bubbly, very funny guy,” Flament said. “He was great to have in a group. He brings a lot of life to the dressing room. He has a lot of stories. You can’t believe so much has happened to one guy. To face each other at the Stade de France in an international frame was a fantasy they discussed in their Coventry digs. “When we lived together in the flat, we said we would play international rugby against each other. It would be the dream. We always promised to swap shirts.
