Lawrence also excelled at football and cricket as a boy, and was with the academies of Aston Villa and Birmingham City, as well as Worcester Warriors, before focusing on rugby at the age of 16.

Sutton is a keen cricketer himself, and has regularly turned out for Norwich cricket club in recent years, but says his rugby career did not really take off.

“I only played rugby once, for my school team,” Sutton said. “We were really excited on the bus on the way there, but we lost 72-0 and I never played again.

“Anyway, it’s great that Ollie played for Villa’s academy, but I’d like to remind him I actually played for their first team.”

Being compared to a rugby side is not usually seen as a compliment for football teams, but Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed recently that he has been inspired by New Zealand rugby head coach Scott Robertson.

From playing both sports, Lawrence can understand why both coaches have shared ideas successfully.

“It definitely makes sense,” he told BBC Sport. “There’s lots to learn from both sports, for example in the way teams try to contain the opposition or set up for a counter-attack.

“I saw Paris St-Germain coach Luis Enrique was watching games from the stands recently, like we do in rugby, rather than the touchline. It is only a small thing but it can make a big difference because you see the game from a different perspective.

“Arteta has been using the rugby term ‘finishers’ rather than ‘substitutes’ too. I think the first time we started using that was with Eddie [former England coach Eddie Jones] who was massive on the bench having an impact on the game, and I can see why Arteta likes that mindset.”