The Stade Mayol, home to European Champions Toulon in the sun-kissed south of France, is a far cry from the cool climates of Rubislaw, the home of Aberdeen Grammar.
For Andy Cramond, a 20-year-old from Edinburgh, the two locations provide a glimpse at just how far he has come.
Two seasons ago, the second row was turning out for his local RHC Cougars in Barton and a year later, while studying in Aberdeen, Cramond played for Aberdeen Grammar in Scotland's RBS Premier Division. These days, he is sharing a changing room with some of the best rugby players on the planet.
"I'm still looking around and thinking how lucky I am to be here," says Cramond, who made his debut for the professional club from the bench in their 53-13 thrashing of Brive on Friday.
Cramond's route to the south of France has been far from ordinary, by all accounts. After Scotland's first match of the 2014 RBS Under-20 6 Nations - a loss against Ireland in which Cramond admits he "didn't event play that well" - he received "a random message" via social networking website, Facebook.
It was a French agent who was on the look out for a second row. "He said he knew of a few clubs out there looking for a second row, including Toulon, and asked me if I had any plans. To be honest, I was thinking if I had a good Six Nations, I might get an EDP [elite player development] contract with Glasgow or Edinburgh," says Cramond.
"Obviously I wanted to concentrate on Toulon and we just kept in contact throughout the Six Nations and got things sorted when I was out in New Zealand at the World Cup."
Nervousness, fear and excitement were just a few of the feelings that Cramond experienced as he flew to France. "I arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and it was pretty strange - my agent dropped me at my flat which was unfurnished at the time and I remember just feeling a little sorry for myself. I shouldn't have bothered as the next morning I was sitting eating breakfast with Ali Williams and Carl Hayman - it was a bit overwhelming," he says.
"Every morning before training, everyone shakes hands with everyone else. On the first day that was pretty special, it was so welcoming."
Australian winger Drew Mitchell stepped in to help furnish the flat Cramond lives in and, after two months, he already feels a part of the club.
Cramond, although signed as an 'Espoir' (which translates as 'hope' and is the title for the club's under-22 academy), is one of a handful of academy players to train with the full professional squad three days a week. Arriving in time for pre-season training, he was prepared for a gruelling time.
"I was expecting to get absolutely torn apart in my first professional pre-season, but it wasn't what I expected," he says. "The pre-season training was all rugby-specific stuff, position-specific games and uncontested run-throughs.
"It's a lot more laid back here, in terms of conditioning and gym stuff. You're given your programme and there are coaches in the gym but they really just trust that you'll go away and do the work."
On Thursday last week, Cramond had his first taste of match-day life with the champions of Europe. A number of injures to first-team players led to his call-up and a professional debut against Brive. "I was actually surprised at the lack of nerves. Brive fans are known for getting an atmosphere going at home games so we were getting screamed at warming up in front of the home fans but I couldn't understand a huge amount of it being honest," he says with a smile.
"It's about working harder now, hopefully getting another shot. Now that I've experienced the pro setup, I'll be doing everything I can do get some more game time."
And after that? Anything is possible, but Cramond's sights are always set on achieving the ultimate goal of a full Scotland cap. "Playing for the national team ... that's something every player dreams of."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article