Jefferson Poirot: ‘We were optimistic even before Scotland beat England’

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 25-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. The session is the same whether I’m with my mental coach or on my own. When I am on my own I can visualise my opponents and the stadium.”

Source: theguardian