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Tait: Happy to lie listening to the water before a big game
Like most sportsmen, Mathew Tait has his own tried and tested routine before a big match.
Which is why on Saturday afternoon, before the World Cup final against South Africa, he will lie down on the bathroom floor of his room at the England hotel, turn on the shower and drift away to his own special place.
It is not a method of relaxation which would impress those obsessed with carbon footprints, but listening to the water falling is how Tait, at 21 the youngest Englishman to play in a World Cup final, copes with his nerves.
"There will be a few nerves flying around. I can't say it will be like any other game because it's not," he explained.
"Guys react in different ways before a game. Some like to go around banging their head against the wall. Some like to stay as relaxed as possible. I'll stay calm. I'd probably knock myself out if I banged my head against the wall.
"So I relax, read books and I have a strange old habit of lying next to the shower in the bathroom with the shower on. I just lie and read and find the sound of the running water relaxing."
It is a fascinating insight into how the man whose international career began as a teenager in the Six Nations hothouse of Cardiff, where he was famously upended by Gavin Henson and promptly dropped from the England squad, deals with pressure.
Jason Robinson describes him as "the future of English rugby" and his penchant for running rugby is well documented, a reputation forged at the big Sevens tournaments at the Commonwealth Games and in Hong Kong.
To date, England rugby fans have not seen as much of Tait's attacking brilliance as they would prefer.
However, he proved in matches against Tonga, Australia and France that any doubts about his defence were misplaced.
And even though in his short career he has been shuttled from centre to wing to fullback he will start the biggest game of his life at his favourite outside centre with 36-year-old Mike Catt inside him.
Fifteen years of rugby experience separate them but a mutual respect draws them close.
"Catty has a great wealth of experience. That will be a great help for me. He will be a calming influence. He's achieved most things in rugby," he added.
"He calls a spade a spade. If he comes across as a bit brash then it's all for the good of the team. I challenge him if I disagree with him and make my own educated decision but most of the time he tends to be right."
Catt, for his part, sees Tait's talents and a mature head on young shoulders.
"He's a hell of a talent, he's been dealt a couple of cruel blows over the last couple of years but he has matured massively as a player," Catt said.
The Catt-Tait midfield axis is vital if England are to hold a Springbok three-quarter line of strong runners and ruthless finishers such as wing Bryan Habana.
But England's potential in attack will not have escaped the notice of South Africa.
"We both like to play the game expansively and I'd like a bit more ball in the attack," Tait said.
"Unfortunately, you've not really seen that over the last few weeks. Last week that was testament to how the French defended. It was difficult to move the ball out wide.
"But on Saturday if I don't touch the ball for 80 minutes and we win I'll be happy."
A measure of how far and how fast Tait has risen is that when Catt and Robinson and his Newcastle team-mate Jonny Wilkinson were actually winning the World Cup four years ago he was watching at Barnard Castle School, the place which famously produced the Underwood brothers.
"I was in the sixth-form common room," he added. "We had a free period on Saturday morning and we were just off to play Ampleforth away with all the team. We won that day."
All England hopes he can say the same come Saturday.
