The big easy (From Bucks Free Press)

Is Jonathan Poff the most laid back player in the Premiership

2:20pm Friday 26th October 2012 in Sport By Alan Feldberg

JONATHAN Poff’s all-action style on the rugby field belies an attitude that is right off the beach in his hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The back row joined Wasps last summer and was named Man of the Match on his debut.

He had to wait until last weekend’s win in Italy for his first try, but that’s not something that’s likely to have got under the skin of the 29-year-old.

He said: “I like to stay pretty relaxed. About 20 minutes up to the warm-up I’ll still be listening to some music and having a bit of dance and sing.

“I like a bit of easy listening. I like my reggae and Jack Johnson to bop away to the beats.

“I like Guns and Roses as well, but as soon as we get out there for that warm-up I like to think I can flick on the switch and build up to that game intensity. You just try to get your mind right.”

That’s been the exercise for Wasps in the past few weeks. They have placed huge emphasis on the Amlin Challenge Cup in a bid to get the results that will engender confidence for their return to the Premiership – against London Welsh tomorrow.

Poff said: “We were always going to take this three or four week period quite seriously to try and build up some momentum.

“It’s been quite good. We’ve won three games in a row now and we didn’t have that last year, so this is my longest winning streak for Wasps.

“There are always things you want to work on, but things have got a bit more squeaky clean and combinations seem to have been working quite well.

“We’ve just got keep working from here and see if we can take a bit of confidence out of these last three weeks.

“You want to get to the stage where if you’re leading by two or down by two you still feel like you’re going to win the game.

“It’s something we’re still building towards but a couple more weeks and few more wins will do that for us.”

London Welsh tomorrow is the first hurdle.

Poff said: “No doubt they’ll be trying to make us look like fools, but it’s a home game at Adams Park. It’s a must-win for us.”

And with one try to his name, has he broken the seal?

He said: “It always feel good to cross the line. It started off as me just falling over the line but by the end of the night it got to about a 30m or 40m run.

“Through my whole career I haven’t really scored that many tries, but hopefully a few more will come my way this season. I’ll be happy with that.”