{"id":236723,"date":"2025-07-04T06:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236723\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T06:31:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:31:22","slug":"french-connection-set-charlie-moss-up-for-this-italian-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236723\/","title":{"rendered":"French connection set Charlie Moss up for this Italian job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AfterAfter twice being stung by clubs going bust in England, Charlie Moss moved to France to forge his career.
\nImage: \u00a9 Craig Watson –
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IT\u2019S one thing to see your club go into administration, it\u2019s quite another to see your next one follow suit within a month to end up dropped in a sink of swim situation in a country where you don\u2019t speak a word of the language. It\u2019s fair to say Charlie Moss has done things the hard way to end up here in Verona.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was gutted because that\u2019s your boyhood club,\u201d he says, somewhat understandably of Wasps\u2019 plunge into administration in 2022.<\/p>\n

Then, no sooner was he picked up by London Irish in a rush job to get the deal over the line before he turned 18, than Moss and his agent were looking for pastures new yet again. This time, it led to an 800 mile trip to sunny Montpellier, one of France\u2019s rugby hothouses, which was the perfect place to get the sour taste of English rugby turmoil out of his mouth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI had a couple of options in England, but at that stage I kind of wanted to go,\u201d Moss explains. \u201cI thought, with all this happening, there\u2019s got be a reason, so I may as well give it a shot in France.\u201d<\/p>\n

The didn\u2019t appear out of thin air, however. After a strong showing for the Scotland U18s against France, local clubs began making enquiries. Spurning their advances in favour of Irish, he wasn\u2019t going to say no a second time.<\/p>\n

Moss is incredibly blas\u00e9, but surely relocating to a foreign country and having to figure everything out yourself whilst still in your teenage years must have been a struggle?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first got there, it was very hard because everything\u2019s in French. You go to the store and you\u2019re reading the labels but you have no idea what anything\u2019s saying,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to sort your flat out and it\u2019s lot harder than it once was.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as they say, pressure makes diamonds, and Moss is grateful for what it has taught him. \u201cIt was a very good experience,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not only getting used to living by yourself, it\u2019s that you\u2019ve basically got to fight for yourself, because you\u2019re on your own. You don\u2019t really speak the language so you\u2019ve got to learn fast. It\u2019s a sink or swim environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

How is his French now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting there. I\u2019m very confident speaking it, holding good conversations in it. I can read all the stu\ufb00 in shops, restaurants and I understand what the coach is saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adapting the life o\ufb00 the pitch is one thing but doing so on it is another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing I noticed was the di\ufb00erence in mannerisms because the French are actually quite laid back, a lot more laid back. It was a big culture shock when I first got there, but now I\u2019m settled and you understand both sides of the coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since arriving in southern France\u00a0on three-year contract in July 2023, Moss has been honing his craft with the club\u2019s \u2018Espoirs\u2019\u00a0 side, the equivalent of the \u2018A\u2019 teams at Glasgow and Edinburgh, albeit they play far more regularly against fellow development French sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they run it out there is a really good system because it just provides constant game-time for the younger players,\u201d says the back-five forward \u201cA lot of boys over here [in the UK] have to go on loan because there aren\u2019t a lot of opportunities to develop younger players at the club, so it\u2019s a lot easier in France because you\u2019re with the club all the time, you can train with the pros mid-week.\u201d<\/p>\n

That close proximity to the senior pros means Moss has been able to train alongside greats of the game such as Billy Vunipola, Paul Willemse<\/strong> and Sam Simmonds<\/strong>, who are just a few of the big names at his club.<\/p>\n

And, it is Willemse, the 6ft 7ins French international, who has made the biggest impact on the the budding Scot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been unreal, especially at the start of the season when I was coming back from an injury and Paul was also coming back, and he was really good with me because he\u2019s been there, he\u2019s done practically everything that there is to achieve,\u201d says Moss. \u201cFar from an elitist setting where the \u2018top dogs\u2019 as it were keep to themselves, the \u2018prospects\u2019 have been able to pick up little stu\ufb00 that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily pick-up from watching them on the TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see what they do in training, what their work-ons are, why they\u2019re doing it and the foreign players especially have been really good with us young boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny questions you ask them, they\u2019re always there for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such was his progress during his first year at Montpellier that Moss was called up to the senior side bench for a pre-season friendly against Toulouse at the start of the 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was buzzing for it. You get there and the stadium\u2019s packed, [with] 20,000 in there, and you\u2019re looking around. It was so humid and I hadn\u2019t acclimatised one bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the warm-up, Moss says he was \u201cabsolutely finished\u201d. However things picked up with his second wind. \u201cGetting out there was one of the most challenging experiences, but it was unreal, It gave you that taste of pro-level rugby. It was one of those experiences I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a sneaking suspicion that Moss will have plenty more rugby memories to draw on later in life with a long career still ahead of him, starting with Scotland U20s, for whom the Essex-born forward qualifies courtesy of his Aberdeen-born and Glasgow-raised mother.<\/p>\n

That connection facilitated his call-up through the Scottish Qualified (SQ) program whilst attending Shiplake College, where he became friends with a certain Reuben Logan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get along with all of the squad very well, especially Reuben, and all the boys I\u2019ve played with at U18s. I think the camp just brings everyone a bit closer together because obviously you\u2019re living together, you\u2019re seeing each other 24-7,\u201d he smiles. \u201cWhether you like it or not!\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss and his teammates will look for all the advantages they can get after a di\ufb03cult defeat to England in the opening round of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was gutting, especially because we made a big point amongst ourselves of showing the progress\u00a0 [made since the Six Nations and I think we did a really good job in the first 20 minutes,\u201d he reflects. \u201cWe showed what we can really do when we play to our strengths. Obviously you can\u2019t predict yellow cards and the a\ufb00ect heat would have on players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the result didn\u2019t go our way, it gives us a lot of confidence as a building block for the next couple of game because we know we have the performance in us. It\u2019s just about keeping it going for the full 80 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

One big plus was the Scotland scrum which punched above its weight to give\u00a0 England a couple of sore ones at the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than when you\u2019ve got a very dominant scrum \u2013 boys get very fired up \u2013 it\u2019s a very close group, the forwards,\u201d says Moss, \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s unreal, especially in the front-row we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Scotland\u2019s \u2018Hateful Eight\u2019 face a dangerous Australia, backed into a corner after a 73-17 humbling at the hands of South Africa, with the return of talisman Freddy Douglas<\/strong> from a concussion seeing Moss shift from starting at blindside flanker to being charged with making in impact off the bench.<\/p>\n

Rugby Union is, of course, a fringe sport in large swathes of Australia, but not this summer, with the British & Irish Lions currently on tour there.<\/p>\n

Does Moss harbour any Lions ambitions himself?<\/p>\n

\u201c100 percent,\u201d he replies. \u201cI think everyone who\u2019s here will aspire to be a Lion, but the way I personally look at it is, you\u2019ve got to have long-term and short-term goals. Obviously everyone wants to aim for the moon, but you\u2019ve got to have a plan of action to take you those next couple of steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

One foot forward it is, and after the conclusion of this tournament with four games still to be played, Moss will join Pro D2 side Valence Romans Dr\u00f4me Rugby in Romans-sur-Is\u00e8re, about 220kms north-west of Montpellier, on loan. He is following a similar path to Scotland\u2019s Alexander Masibaka<\/strong>, who pulled up trees\u00a0 these last two seasons while on loan with Soyaux-Angoul\u00eame from Montpellier.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, personally, there are a lot of little things in the game that I know I need to work on, and it\u2019s just about processing day-in and day-out, making sure that, even if you\u2019re one percent better than the day before, you keep adding that up over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, I think our goal is the same, just to keep progressing and putting our performances we feel proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

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World Rugby U20 Championship: six changes for Scots ahead of Australia clash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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