Having turned down Newcastle’s reduced contract offer, Graham and his young family were set to leave Gateshead behind them and start a new life in the French medieval-hilltop town of Carcassonne this summer.
However, the deal was scrapped once Carcassonne were relegated at the beginning of May in the most agonising of circumstances.
While the basement battle with Soyaux-Angoulême may not have been big news to most UK rugby fans, it came as a bombshell to barnstorming back-rower Graham to hear that Nicolas Martins’ 78th-minute try against champions Oyonnax had given Soyaux-Angoulême the losing bonus point they required to keep their place in ProD2.
Soyaux-Angoulême and Carcassone, who’d done all they could by beating Provence on the final day, finished level on points and, as a result, the former stayed up because they had the better head-to-head record in the home-and-away meetings between the two in the regular season.
For Graham, the hows and whys were immaterial, all he knew was that his life had been turned upside down by a Portuguese international flanker more known for making tackles than scoring big-match tries.
“Their budget has been cut so they have pulled out so I am unemployed at the moment,” said the Stirling-born player, raised in Carlisle.
“I’ve got a wife and a child and another one on the way next month, due on July 3, so there’s a lot going on and I’m a little bit like a duck at the moment, calm on top but panicking underneath.
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