Some transfers are settled in numbers. Salary, length, sporting project. This one was settled in emotions. On Monday 2 March, USAP confirmed the arrival of Luke McGrath, a 33-year-old Ireland scrum-half, on a one-year deal with a further year in option. The CV is impressive. But that is not what tipped the balance.

A blood-and-gold shirt in his head since 2003

The year is 2003. In the stands at Lansdowne Road, a 10-year-old boy watches his Leinster play a European semi-final. Facing them: Perpignan, in blood and gold. He does not yet grasp all the workings of rugby, but he can feel the tension in his father’s shoulders. He sees those Catalan players who do not go backwards. Ever. That evening, something is imprinted. Twenty-three years later, the phone rings. Perpignan. “I did not think about the contract, or about the miles”, McGrath says in his presentation video, relayed by L’Indépendant. He thought about that boy. About his father. About that match. Then he said yes.

Leinster in his blood, USAP in a corner of his mind

It would be reductive to see only a nice story here. McGrath arrives in Perpignan with a record few Top 14 players can match: 248 matches for Leinster, a Champions Cup claimed in 2018, five European finals to his name, several Celtic league titles, and 19 caps for Ireland. A starter in Dublin for a long time, he gradually gave way to Jamison Gibson-Park without ever disappearing from the big campaigns. He knows what playing under pressure means. USAP, looking for experience and character in that position, have aimed well. And McGrath, for his part, is closing a circle he perhaps was not consciously looking for. “I am not coming to Perpignan to finish a story”, he warns L’Indépendant. “I am coming to honour one.”