Sometimes the quality of performance does not even need to be assessed. Sometimes overseas players just look right in the jersey, while others, palpably, do not. Butch James, South Africa’s fly-half in their 2007 World Cup triumph, will be wearing the jersey of Bath at Leicester this afternoon. Last week, as the West Country froze around him, I asked James how many times over Christmas his mind had strayed to Durban, to its summer and to the vast sweep of beach alongside which he spent almost all his professional rugby life, with Natal and the Sharks, before joining Bath.

“Well, you miss your family and friends, and you wonder what they are doing. We always had Christmas off at home because it was the close season, and here at Bath we’ve played right through. I remember at home we used to complain because it was too hot at training. I won’t be doing that again.” No wonder his girlfriend has a wish list, topped by the Maldives, of escapes to the sun. Yet James recently signed an extension to his Bath contract which will keep him here for three more years. “What have I done?”

In fact, he has done rather well. He is loving it. With James at the helm, Bath started 2009 at the top of the Guinness Premiership table, remarkable for a team that stick doggedly to the salary cap and lose income hand over fist because of severe problems extending their stadium. James looks so comfortable in the Bath jersey and around the squad that he could be a true Bathonian.

Nothing was guaranteed. Would he still be hungry after 26 caps and the ultimate medal? Would his suspect knees take him through the rigours of a Premiership season? And although he has never come across as one of the more impenetrable Springboks, would he have the demeanour, humility and trust in others to succeed in England? In the year he has been here, he has definitively answered all those questions, which says as much for Bath’s rugby community and spirit as it does for the adaptability and professionalism of James. He knew Pieter Dixon, Michael Claassens and Matt Stevens, the three South African-born Bath men. But he knew very little about a team that is not exactly stuffed full of galacticos. Accordingly, he has had a year of revelation.

“I’ve been incredibly impressed. Everyone was really welcoming, which was a great start, but then I found there are some terrific players here. Some of them are very unlucky not to be in the England set-up, but even those who may never get there are remarkably good. We have these guys who are born and bred in Bath, they love their club and their town and that comes out in them every time they play. You look at Alex Crockett, Andy Beattie, Matt Banahan - they are all really good players.”

James is a specific type of fly-half, because he is not actually any specific type of fly-half at all. Since South Africa came back into international rugby in 1992 they have thrashed around almost in a frenzy to try to find fly-halves of consistent excellence to anchor the team. Mostly they have failed, and in the search they have awarded the jersey to a large number of rather feeble performers.

James has managed to tie the position down. He arrived in the team in 2001 but had long periods of absence because of his k n e e p r o b l e m s a n d a p o o r e a r l y disciplinary record, caused by a propensity for ferocious high and late tackling, which at one time made him the most dangerous fly-half in the game in more ways than one.

Now he has settled down and become a coach’s dream. In terms of playing style, he can be whatever you need. At the World Cup he was in a team that had Victor Matfield and his lineout. This changed the priority. James could stand back in the pocket and deliver booming kicks into touch, pegging the opposition back in the knowledge that Matfield could turn the ball over at the next lineout.

At Bath, Steve Meehan, the estimable coach, wants James to test the defence, to never let it settle. Accordingly, James has come way forward and played with real expertise for Bath, flat in the traffic and putting people through the gaps. Perhaps his talents are not immediately dazzling. For a World Cup-winning fly-half, his profile at France 2007 was relatively low, but to be so wonderfully adaptable is some commendation, and it is at the heart of Bath’s season.

“I’ve matured a lot over the years, from the time when I was a chicken that had lost its head. I’m a laid-back guy generally, and at 10 it’s important to stay calm and try to run things. I see the job as making the best decisions for the team depending on the situation on the field and in the match.”

Olly Barkley, now at Gloucester, played with James last season and loved the experience: “He did not say very much, but when he did speak, it was usually quality. He was remarkable to play alongside.” There is no compelling evidence that James is not still the best fly-half available to his country. Yet while every Springbok is desperate to play against the Lions in the summer, he has a surprising diffidence about his own ambitions. “I would love to play in the Test series but it is not the be-all and end-all,” he says. “I’m happy about the decision to come over here and I won’t get too down if I’m not picked.”

You wonder if he is as sanguine as he sounds. He may suspect that his chances are affected because he is not playing in South African rugby, although he did play in the 2008 TriNations. But it could also be that he is wary of investing too many hopes in the minefield of South African rugby, and of the way in which even successful teams encounter the most wearying political fuss and bother.

Is life as a Springbok always as fraught as it appears to us outsiders? “Definitely. It is sad what goes on. Even when the team is going well, there is always someone higher up, disrupting things. That is where Jake White was so good. He could blank it all out; he would try to deal with it so that things did not get through to the players, and I’m sure a lot happened that we never got to hear about. But even then, it could still be very disrupting.”

What does he make of the controversial Peter de Villiers, the country’s first nonwhite national coach? “That job is the toughest in the world, in any sport. And it was unfortunate and unfair to him when they said that he was partly a political choice.”

Neither James nor any current Springbok can be expected to comment on whether De Villiers is really up to the task.

Back to Bath. Any team that is top at the midway point of the season must have aspirations to take the title. Can Bath win it? “We can, but not if we’re playing the way we are playing at the moment. We’ve got to be better than that. I’m sure Leicester will go into the game feeling the same. We know we can be much better, and it will be fantastic if we can be peaking when the playoffs come.”

There are still tinges of Springbok green discernible around James, not to mention the blond of his hair. But his career is now dressed in Bath blue and white, and today Leicester will find the Durban beach boy competing against them with the fire of any local.

HITS AND MISSES FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

Ben Blair (Cardiff Blues) He was only ever on the fringes of the New Zealand team, but Blair is a key man for the Blues and one of the leading players in the Magners League

Doug Howlett (Munster) Has added a new dimension to the side’s play in attack and defence

Greg Rawlinson (Worcester) The former All Black lock has thrived here, becoming one of the most influential players in the Premiership

Rico Gear (Worcester) A hero in New Zealand, but he has not yet found his finest form for the Warriors

Carl Hayman (Newcastle Falcons) Few doubt the power of the All Black prop, but he has not quite galvanised the Newcastle forwards as his new paymasters might have hoped