It is early afternoon and Wales rugby star Dan Biggar is in the indoor facility his team uses when conditions outside are extreme.

“Most teams have a barn for horrific weather, rain and wind,” the Toulon fly-half explains. “This is to keep the sun off. Gives us a bit of shade.”

We are well into October and the Met Office has issued 81 flood alerts across the UK. A number of A-roads are under water. The Express, not for the first time, is forecasting worse to come.

Biggar opens the barn door and peers out. “Blue skies, 22 degrees,” he says. “We’ll take that.”

Big shirt to fill

The former Wales captain is almost two years into life on the Cote d’Azur, one of the ever-growing foreign legion of Brits in France’s top two divisions.

As the Med sparkles beneath autumn sunshine Biggar cuts a relaxed figure and is ready to talk… about England‘s overseas selection policy and Owen Farrell‘s move to Paris.

About the pressure he feels wearing the Toulon jersey forever associated with Jonny Wilkinson – and the night he “went on the smash” with Usain Bolt.

“I know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea,” he starts. “I say it as I see it. I never conformed to the public opinion of what a Welsh rugby player or 10 should be.”

With that he is into the thorny issue of international selection of foreign-based players. South Africa permit it and have won the last two World Cups. England don’t and were last world champions 21 years ago.

“I’m a firm believer you should be able to pick whoever you want, wherever they play,” says Biggar, who last year was part of the Wales squad which threatened strike action and succeeded in loosening their eligibility regs.

“If you’re performing well, improving as a player and the best fit for the [national] team, it shouldn’t matter where and who you play your club rugby for.”

Since finishing third in the World Cup last year England has lost as many games as it has won. Unavailable to coach Steve Borthwick are stars of France’s Top 14 Jack Willis, Henry Arundell, Joe Marchant and Junior Kpoku.

Across the Channel also are Billy and Mako Vunipola, Courtney Lawes, Jack Nowell, Kyle Sinckler, Lewis Ludlam, Manu Tuilagi, David Ribbans, Sam Simmonds and Farrell, whose Racing 92 team face Toulon in Paris on Saturday.

“I’m not a fan of any restrictions, that’s my honest opinion,” adds Biggar. “If the coach wants to pick you, he should be able to.”

Already there are unsubstantiated claims online that Farrell’s stay in France could be short, yet Biggar believes his old adversary will be a hit, providing he learns to “pick his battles”.

“For me, Owen has made a smart move,” he says. “After what he’s been through the last 12 months or so I think France, particularly Paris where rugby gets less scrutiny than it does down here, will suit him.

“He’ll take a bit of time to adapt because his personality is a bit different to the traditional [French] player. You have to pick your battles, sometimes let things go.

“You’re coming into their country, their culture, their clubs. You can’t chase everything. You’ve got to pick which ones you think you can win.

“I found that hard to do at the start. But the more time he spends here the more he’ll get to understand and I expect him to do really well.”

Biggar’s support might surprise some given how the pair were at each other throats the last time they faced each other, when England played Wales in August last year and Farrell was red carded for a high tackle.

The Welshman took a dim view of it and said so. “I told him to f*** off,” he admits in his autobiography ‘The Biggar Picture’. “He marched over and yelled, ‘What are you going to do about it, you soft c***?’”

Biggar laughs. “I look at him and how fiery and competitive he is, wanting to win every single moment in the game. I see bits of myself in that,” he says.

“Owen and Johnny Sexton are without doubt the toughest and most competitive players I’ve played against.

“Owen would be the first to say he’s not the most skilful, but whenever you play against him you have to be absolutely on it because he will be tough, competitive, fiery, in your face, challenging everything. The amount of respect I’ve got for him is huge.”

Like Farrell, Biggar has not always been appreciated in his own country. He describes as “incredible” the pressure of wearing the Wales number 10 shirt.

“I spent 15 years thinking I’ve got to keep myself fit, I’ve got to keep playing well,” he says. “That shirt is judged harsher than any other, probably, in the British Isles.

“But it turns out that was good preparation for wearing the 10 shirt here, where Jonny is as popular as he is in England for all that he achieved.”

Biggar adds: “I try to approach it the way I did the Wales shirt. I didn’t ever want to be a Phil Bennett, a Jonathan Davies, a Cliff Morgan. I wanted to be me.

“I never claimed to be a magician like Benny [Bennett], a Marcus Smith-type player with those brilliant highlight reels. My satisfaction came from delivering in games where it was gritty and tough and horrible, finding a way to manage my team through it and squeeze the last bit out of what we had.

“I know I’m not the flashiest player in the world. But I look at my time at Northampton and we played some really good rugby. Maybe I’ve got more in me than some gave me credit.”

Mention of Northampton reminds Biggar, who is not playing this weekend, of a career highlight to set alongside Wales’ 2015 World Cup defeat of England at Twickenham and the Dragons’ 30-3 rout of Grand Slam-chasing opponents in the same fixture two years before.

An unforgettable week

“I was invited up to Old Trafford to watch Man United play Villarreal in the Champions League,” he says. “United are my team, Ronaldo has scored a late winner and we’re drinking champagne in the directors’ lounge when we’re told there’s a good guest coming to join us.

“I’m thinking maybe one of the Treble winners when Usain Bolt rocks up and sits at our table. The whole mood of the night changes.

“It’s a Wednesday and Saints have a game on the Saturday but I’m thinking ‘if we’re not going to get on the smash now, with Usain Bolt, we never will’.

“I’d never done it before, nor have I ever since. We had training the following morning and a driver back to Northampton.

“I somehow got through the training, sprinted off the pitch, scoffed a McDonalds on the way home and was in bed by 7.30pm.

“For any Saints fan reading this, we won that weekend. We beat London Irish. It capped an unforgettable week.”

The Biggar Picture, published by Pan Macmillan, is out now.