With the surname Poirot it was perhaps inevitable that France’s loose-head prop would develop a heightened interest in using “the little grey cells”. Front-rows have definitely changed. While it is 36 years since the England prop Colin Smart was infamously tricked into swilling aftershave at the post-match banquet in Paris, the thoughtful Jefferson Poirot explains how his preparation for Saturday’s Test against the English will mainly be in the mind.
“I have a big focus on mental preparation,” says the 23-year-old. “I love it and I work on it a lot. There’s a lot of hypnosis when I work with my mental coach.”
Cynics might suggest watching videos of plodding France sides over the past few seasons would induce a trance-like state but for the Bordeaux-Bègles prop the sessions with his mental coach, Gershon Pinon, are a serious business.
“You either believe in it or you don’t and I believe in it a lot,” says Poirot. “When I’m here at Marcoussis I can’t work with him and I have an audio recording that helps me prepare for the match. It is organised thematically as I prepare for scrums, my role in attack, my play without the ball and my defence.
Source : theguardian
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