Moon was 'hours away' from staying at Saints but lock was desperate to realise France dream

The lock is having so much fun that he can't wait to get to cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens every day.

"If you can't get motivated by what is going on at the minute, then you are in the wrong job really," Moon said at this week's media session.

"Everything is out there in front of us, every game has got motivation behind it. It is awesome.

"It is so much fun turning up to work and you're waking up before the alarm goes off, you're so excited to get in and crack on and get ready for a massive week ahead every time.

"If you wind the clock back three weeks ago, you come off the back of a bad performance against Bristol and you go right, ‘you have a chance to play Sarries at home, European round of 16, European quarter, derby, Harlequins at Twickenham, then Leinster at Croke Park, that is your run-in’ – it is nuts.

"It's big game after big game."

And each game carries even more significance for Moon as the clock ticks down on his Saints career.

At the end of January, it was announced that the 27-year-old would be calling time on his stay at the club where he graduated from the Academy.

Moon will make the switch to Top 14 side Bayonne this summer and though he is loving life at Saints currently, he has no regrets about opting to leave.

"I am at peace with it," he said.

"I think the fact that we are going well has made that a little bit easier and also the fact that I am not the only one.

"I think maybe if I was in the same position as Dave (Ribbans) last year and I was the only frontline guy leaving at the end of the year, it might’ve felt a bit different.

"I’ve got Luds (Lewis Ludlam) and Courts (Courtney Lawes) and a whole host of other guys leaving at the same time, so I don’t feel like a stand-out person leaving.

"It is quite nice that we’re all in this together, I am not the only one. I am at peace with it, but it (the current good form) is making it very enjoyable."

Moon admits he actually came extremely close to staying at Saints beyond the current campaign and leaving was clearly not an easy decision to make as black, green and gold is all he has ever known during his professional career.

When asked how difficult it was to call time on his Saints stint, Moon said: "It was very difficult.

"We had been negotiating here for a fair while, the club were awesome with it.

"I looked around. To be honest, I was hours away from re-signing here but my agent came in out of the blue with the whole Bayonne situation. We didn't go looking for it, they came to us.

"It was the first time I had ever been in that position really.

"It has always been a dream of mine. I have moved around my whole life, I joke around with friends and family about living in like 12 or 13 houses in my life, I have had to move around all the time.

"I've always liked travelling, if you look at my social media, I am travelling all the time. I like going to places and experiencing new things.

"France was always a dream of mine at some point, it just so happened that it came around when the Six Nations squad was announced, I wasn't in, then this happened.

"It is a two-year deal, at the end of the deal I am still on the right side of 30, when that is finished I can assess it. Do I want to come back over, do I want to stay out there? Who knows. But it happened at quite a nice time."

Discussions around Moon's move came at time when Saints were getting close to the break for the Guinness Six Nations.

And he said: "It actually came at a really good time for me. We had a couple of really important games, we had the game against Newcastle just before we went on the break, so, when it was all unfolding for me behind the scenes, I had rugby to fall back on and distract me really.

"All of a sudden we had a bunch of time off and it was really bizarre, because it became quite real.

"I actually started to plan things, trying to get my partner sorted, trying to get her set up for work over there (in France).

"I sort of got all that done by the time we then rolled into these games so I can now just go back and concentrate on rugby.

"Having that time off, I thought about the fact that I have been here for nine years in the senior side then I was in the academy since I was 14.

"This is the best we've ever been, in my entire time. It is so exciting.

"Actually I was saying it after the game against the Bulls up in the directors lounge, it is so nice now that I have got no stress, no worry outside of rugby, stuff has sort of unfolded and I have been able to put stuff to bed.

"With my decision it has meant that other things now are in place so now it is just like I can focus on playing rugby matches and being in the moment and enjoy this with everyone."

Moon, like so many of his team-mates, has been in fine form, propelling Saints to 13 wins in their past 14 competitive matches.

But he says not everyone has noticed how well he is playing.

"I do the most boring stuff on a rugby field but I enjoy it," Moon said. "I'm just hitting breakdowns, making tackles, disrupting mauls.

"It's funny, I come off the pitch and my partner and my mum don't have a clue what I've been doing. They watch a lot of rugby but they don't get some of the stuff I do on the field so I come off the pitch and my mum is like 'did you have a good game?'.

"I'm like 'mum, you've watched me play rugby for the past 20 years' but she's like 'I just don't know if it's been a good game for you or not' so it is a funny position in the team.

"You'd think someone my size would probably get seen a little bit, but I don't.

"It is fun though."