Tom Wood used a season in the province as a springboard to a fine English test career, and Sean Jansen earned a contract with Premiership powerhouse Leicester after a spell in the Heartland Championship.
Now the Old Golds have produced ... wait for it ... a German international.
Howard Packman, a winger who was part of the brilliant North Otago team that won the Meads Cup in 2019, recently made his debut for the German national sevens team at a tournament in France.
His father, Northampton Saints great Frank, was born in Germany and lived there till he was 8.
"I felt really proud today and it's something Dad would have wanted," Packman told his hometown newspaper, the Northampton Chronicle.
"I want to make people proud, do my best for Germany and show my brothers that are playing that if they want to do it, they can."
Packman’s grandmother was German, and met his grandfather while he was working for the army.
"I don't actually know any German, even though my dad did try to teach me.
"Luckily for me, the whole team is fluent in English. They'll always tell me the jokes and they're all really nice guys here."
Packman was something of a schoolboy prodigy.
He played 14 games for England at under-20 level — winning the world junior championship in New Zealand in 2014 — and represented England at two world sevens tournaments.
The dream was to follow in the footsteps of the great Frank Packman, who scored a remarkable 178 tries in 323 games for Northampton.
Packman junior did get to play a handful of games for the Saints before being released and having a spell at Bedford, from where he was encouraged to spend a season in North Otago.
He played for the Valley club then made 10 appearances for the Old Golds, scoring six tries, including two in the Meads Cup semifinal win over Wairarapa-Bush and one in the victory over Wanganui in the final.
Packman had since been through difficult times, the Northampton Chronicle reported.
His father died unexpectedly in March 2021, and Packman had a stretch out of rugby following an alleged assault that left him with severe concussion.
"When I got back to training, I realised I had some nerve damage in my neck and it was really bad.
"It kept me out for a long time, and my physio, after all of that happened, told me he'd never seen someone have such bad luck over an eight-month period.
"These things are there to test us and you have to get over them."
