Nathan Hines might be comfortable with the fact that his international career is now over, but three-year-old Josh Hines is clearly struggling with the change.

Hence the slightly surreal scene in the living room of their home in Clermont-Ferrand a few weeks ago when, having just sat down to watch the Scotland-England match on TV, the 77-times-capped Hines senior was ordered to his feet by his (as yet uncapped) toddler son.

"Josh was watching it with me," Hines recalls. "When they started singing the anthems he said, 'look, it's your rugby team and they're singing the rugby song'. So he made me stand up and sing Flower of Scotland with him. He knows all the words."

This image of gentle domesticity might sit ill-at-ease with the memory of the part Hines played as the No.1 enforcer in the Scotland pack for more than a decade. Few players have ever come up with more imaginative ways of bringing tears to opponents' eyes than he did, but the 6ft 7in lock-cum-flanker was always the gentlest of giants away from the pitch.

Tears of a different sort flowed down the Hines cheeks after Scotland's 16-12 loss to England in Auckland last year, a match that ended the Scots' Rugby World Cup campaign and drew down the curtain on the international adventure that had begun for Hines in the very same city more than 11 years earlier when he had trotted on to Eden Park to win his debut cap as a replacement against New Zealand.

As he had only come to Scotland from his native Australia a couple of years earlier to play a spot of social rugby in the same Gala side that gave the world Chris Paterson, it was the end of a remarkable journey for Hines. But having lived as a Test animal for all that time – barring his brief, self-imposed exile when his personal circumstances and his frustration with former coach Matt Williams took him out of that arena – how does he now feel about being an ex-international player?

"It's a bit weird, mate," he says. "It's strange watching from a distance, knowing the players, knowing everything that's going on and knowing what happens behind the scenes, but being so far from it. Being honest, I suppose I miss it a bit, but it's the games I miss, not all the preparations and everything else around it."

The "everything else" Hines refers to used to blow a two-month hole in his diary at this time of year. Not that he was one to complain about it, but he is finally starting to find out what other people do with their Saturdays in February and March. "It's pretty good right now," he says jauntily. "I'm on holiday for 10 days and I'm getting to spend some time with Josh and [his wife] Leanne.

"I suppose it was always going to be a bit odd not being part of the Scotland squad, but I had prepared myself for it and knew it was coming. All in all, it's not been too bad."

Hines will have a rather closer view of how his former Scotland team-mates are faring without him this weekend when he will be a guest of honour at the Murrayfield match against France on Sunday. Commendably, the SRU have offered both Hines and Dan Parks the chance to say their farewells to the Murrayfield crowd in the minutes before kick-off. Both can expect thunderous acclaim when they walk on to the pitch for the last time.

But just as life goes on for Parks in Cardiff, so it continues for Hines at Clermont Auvergne, the club he joined after helping Leinster capture the Heineken Cup at the end of last season. After a four-season stint at Perpignan, he has adapted easily to French life, but there is such a strong Scottish contingent at Clermont that he was never likely to suffer from homesickness anyway.

The club's manager is Neil McIlroy, the ex-Jed-Forest and Border Reivers prop who set off to play for Nice in 1998 and never got round to coming home. Also on the club's books are Jason White, the former Scotland captain who also won 77 caps for his country, and Mark Bennett, the Ayrshire teenager who will assuredly win a few of his own in due time.

So how is the Caledonian esprit de corps holding up? "It's a good little bunch, isn't it?" Hines replies. "We get some grief from the French players, who reckon Neil is the Dad and we're all his sons. We actually talked about having a Burns Supper a few weeks ago, but we couldn't get hold of any haggis."

Of course, with French Top 14 duties to attend to and a Heineken Cup quarter-final slot already secured, Hines is not exactly in pipes-and-slippers territory just yet. In eight days' time, Clermont, currently second in the French competition, will entertain league leaders Toulouse at their Stade Marcel Michelin home, a match that has suddenly been made all the more intriguing by the fact that both sides will be without those French international players who will be involved in the rescheduled fixture against Ireland in Paris.

For the moment, though, Hines is relishing the prospect of watching his old mates against a French side that contains a posse of Clermont players such as Morgan Parra, club captain Aurelien Rougerie and Wesley Fofana, the highly rated new centre. So how confident do the Clermont contingent feel right now?

Hines says: "They're not underestimating Scotland at all. I was speaking to Aurelien the other day and he was saying that he has been really impressed by the way Scotland play. Remember, France haven't played together for three weeks, and that might work against them, but they won't be taking Scotland lightly.

"Personally, I think Scotland are playing better rugby and creating things, but they just haven't got the results so far. It is frustrating. You look at England, who aren't playing well in many ways, but they've had two charge-downs, two tries and two wins. That's frustrating, but hopefully the confidence that some of the young guys bring to the side could change that on Sunday."