Biarritz-bound Addison Lockley knows he's going to have to bridge the language gap off the pitch and do his talking on it - by learning to scrap.
The Moseley second row appeared in the Red and Black for the final time against Bedford last weekend and brought the curtain down on an impressive season at Billesley Common.
So impressive in fact his exploits in the second tier of English rugby came to the attention of the French powerhouse.
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Biarritz have handed the youngster a two-year contract and a potential route from the bottom of the Championship into the most glamorous league in world rugby.
And if they win the Amlin Challenge Cup – they face Leinster in the semi-final next week – the 21-year-old could find himself in the Heineken Cup next season.
But as excited as he is by stratospheric ascent to the pinnacle of the European game, he knows there are battles ahead.
“I am under no illusions that I am simply going to walk straight into the first team,” the Taunton-born forward conceded.
“I am going to have to graft hard this pre-season and hopefully impress. They have got five second rows, including myself, so hopefully I have got quite a big chance of actually playing some rugby next season.
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“They have also got an Under-23 league as well and I will be playing in that if I am not playing in the first team. It’s such a big opportunity to go out there and experience another culture and another challenge in my life.
“There are cautionary tales out there and I am aware of those but I just need to work hard every day and hopefully they will reward me for that.”
Lockley attracted Biarritz with his outstanding lineout skills and he will be used as an ‘athletic, ball-playing lock’ but he’ll also have to learn to cope with the rough stuff.
The French league is a notoriously unforgiving environment with matches often marred, by English standards at least, by outbreaks of alarming violence.
Lockley isn’t fazed. “It can be pretty brutal out there,” he says. “I am definitely going to have to learn how to fight, there’s definitely more of a fighting culture out there.
“I am thrilled every time I think about it but as it gets closer it’s getting a bit more daunting. I am really going to relish the opportunity of going out there and playing.
“But I don’t want to go out there and be a wall-flower or be over-awed. I need to take my chances when they arrive. I need to get a good pre-season under my belt and take every opportunity that comes, roll with the punches, not rest on my laurels and throw myself into everything that’s asked of me.”
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And a big part of that will be adapting to a different pace of life. While land-locked Billesley Common has an inhospitable micro-climate all of its own, Biarritz is on the coast in the deep southwest of France and has a reputation for outstanding surfing.
Just 11 miles from the Spanish border it also boasts superb beaches and an average temperature of nearly 10 degrees – in December!
Lockley will turn up for pre-season training at the end of June and move straight into club-provided accommodation.
He will meet up with compatriots Iain Balshaw and Ben Broster and other Anglophiles like the Lund brothers.
“I will be thrown in the deep end language-wise,” he admits. “I am having lessons to help the process and when I get out there I will have further lessons.
“There are a few English players out there and a lot of other English speakers as well, but I am going to have to immerse myself into the culture and into the language.
“I did French at school, I know a little bit but not enough at the minute. Hopefully when I start back up again it will all come back to me.
“I never really thought I would get an opportunity like this. I always said to myself I’d have maybe two years at Championship level and then maybe try and pursue another Premiership contract or something like that. I have been chucked in the deep end in the Championship with Powelly becoming injured – it was pretty surprising to be honest.
“I have really enjoyed playing this year and I think I have had a decent season but I didn’t think anything like Biarritz, one of the top clubs in Europe, would come about.
“When my agent mentioned it I was kind of ‘Oh, my God’. It was a big decision. They invited me out to go and have a look at the club and facilities and I’m glad I did.
“I spoke to Magnus and Erik Lund and they said the club is fantastic and that they love the lifestyle as well. It’s fantastic, the facilities are second to none, everything is on site, the gym, the medical side of everything.
“And Biarritz, as a town, is beautiful as well. It’s right on the coast and very picturesque.” But the local rugby pitch can be a pretty rough place.