Saints sign 'unbelievably powerful athlete' van der Mescht from Stade Français

A powerful, aggressive and physical second row forward, van der Mescht made 75 appearances for Stade during four seasons in Paris, scoring seven tries.

The 26-year-old, who stands at 6ft 7ins tall and weighs in at 145kg, grabbed a breakaway try when Saints met the Top 14 side back in January in an Investec Champions Cup clash at Stade Jean-Bouin.

And Dowson is delighted to have been able to bring van der Mescht to Northampton.

“Our new scrum coach, Jaco Pienaar, had worked with JJ at the Sharks, and said to us that he is an unbelievably powerful athlete who can play the game,” Dowson said.

“JJ’s potential is through the roof. As well as his obvious physical attributes, he can really play ball – Jaco joked that JJ is a fly-half trapped in a second row’s body.

"He’s also capable of making big plays which can turn matches, like charging down a kick and sprinting in for a 50-metre try when we played them in January, for example.

“He’s very good at knocking mauls apart, he’s very good at carrying hard, and he’s got a good skillset already, but I have no doubt that our coaching group can get a lot more out of him as well.

“We have a fine track record of developing top-quality locks – not just in the current crop of second row forwards already in our squad, but if you look at the likes of David Ribbans, Alex Moon, and Temo Mayanavanua as well, who came on leaps and bounds during their time here at Saints. So, it was a good match.

"JJ has aspirations to improve and get the most out of his undoubted potential, and the big selling point for him was that at Saints we have the ability to coach him really hard to achieve that.”