Scott Franklin of Rugby Canada had his “faith in humanity restored” only hours after losing his passport, keys, money and phone on Sunday night.

The visiting athlete’s jacket, containing his most crucial possessions, had fallen off his bike into the road and he presumed it was lost.

But Mr Franklin, who is on a week’s visit for the Rugby Classic from Medicine Hat, Alberta, was delighted when his jacket was returned and met his saviour in person to thank her.Last night, he presented Wanda Francis with a token of gratitude for going the extra mile to reunite him with the jacket.

On the same night that he discovered he had lost the jacket, Mr Franklin heard that it had been handed in, along with all his things, at Hamilton Police Station.

“I did a touchdown dance there in the station — thank you so much,” Mr Franklin told Ms Francis, presenting her with a bouquet of flowers. “My life was in that jacket.”

Mr Franklin explained that he was on his way home after the game at North Field in Devonshire to stay with his host Jane Vickers.

The Vickers family have hosted Mr Franklin several times during his eight trips to the island.

Just as the rugby player was leaving the National Sports centre, Ms Francis was leaving Devonshire Seventh-day Adventist Church in Roberts Avenue.

She said: “I saw him ahead of me. Just at the junction with Parsons Road, he went down. He popped back up pretty quickly and rode off.”

But he had left his jacket with all his essentials in the road and had disappeared by the time she picked it up.

Ms Francis turned it in at the police station and said the duty officer found “everything you need in a foreign country” inside.

Meanwhile, a despairing Mr Franklin had gone back to the scene, recalling only that “somebody had honked at me”.

A call to the police confirmed that the jacket had been handed in.

After getting everything back, Ms Vickers turned to Facebook to track down the Good Samaritan and thank her in person.

“People said it was typical of her to do something like that,” Ms Vickers said. “Nowhere but Bermuda would this happen.”