Sam shows the way for Saints' young players

Because this is a man who has grafted and grafted in a bid to fulfil his ambitions – and he still has plenty more goals he wants to reach.

Graham has been a chef, an Academy player and a Championship star on his journey towards England’s top flight.

And he says making a habit of proving people wrong has been key as he has looked to achieve his rugby dreams.

"One of my favourite things is proving people wrong,” Graham said.

"I’ve had people say when I left being a chef that it would be the biggest mistake I would ever make so it gave me great joy (to show that wasn't the case).

"I don’t think I could have stuck at being a chef for the rest of my life. I stood at my desk one day and decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

"I made the decision I would move to New Zealand to play rugby and it all kicked off from there.”

Graham, who worked as a professional chef for five years before his rugby career kicked off, began at Chippenham RFC before joining Bath’s Academy and then Bristol.

As he references, he also spent time overseas developing his game with Auckland’s Massey RFC prior to joining the Bears, where he made 10 first-team appearances and a further 15 while on loan with Hartpury.

Graham then became a key man for Doncaster Knights in the Championship, winning the players’ and coaches’ player of the year awards during his first year at Castle Park and being rewarded with the captaincy for last season.

He went on to make it into the Championship dream team before joining Saints last summer.

Since then, the 25-year-old has made 11 appearances for the black, green and gold, including coming off the bench in the memorable derby-day win at Leicester Tigers last time out.

"If I was putting myself in this position at this time last year, I probably wouldn’t have expected it,” Graham said.

"Every opportunity I’m getting I’m just loving.

"It was a pretty special occasion at Leicester and you could tell from the boys and the crowd what it means.

"It was awesome and those are the games you really get up for.

"I’ve grown up watching those games since I was about five, seeing them on TV, and it was pretty mind-blowing to be part of it.”

It was just reward for the hard work Graham has put in to get to this point.

And he said: “The beauty of this sport is that sometimes you can feel hard done by because you work really hard and you always want more.

"You get to a stage where your exceptional becomes acceptable and you just keep wanting the next thing.

"I’m very happy with where I am at the moment but I just want to keep pushing on.

"This week is the perfect example of getting the chance to start and hopefully keep hold of that shirt.”