All Blacks: Gear running to hip-hop beats

Hosea Gear finds he plays better if he listens to music in warm-ups. Photo / Getty Images

When you talk about players having to find another gear to get the best out of themselves, that can be taken literally in the case of Hosea Gear.

The 26-year-old wing enjoyed a coming-of-age performance against England at Twickenham and it came after the realisation that his natural demeanour probably wasn't best suited for the demands of international rugby.

Laidback to the point of insouciance, critics who claimed his workrate was not high enough could point to several examples of him drifting in and out of games.

While he was not perfect against England - his game slipped in the second half along with the majority of his teammates - it showed enough progress to have put a smile on the faces of the All Black coaches who had been among his most vocal critics.

"I was probably more pleased than with the previous games I've played for the ABs but at the same time there were still a few things I wanted to do better and a couple of areas I will look to improve on as well," Gear said in Edinburgh as the team was settling into their new residence.

"The coaches talked about [how] not too many opportunities might come the way of some players. I knew that [England] might be the only opportunity I had, so I had to make the most of it.

"At the same time I wanted to enjoy it. The last tests I played I probably didn't enjoy it because I didn't play as well as I wanted to."

It is only recently that Gear has discovered that the only way he gets to truly enjoy his rugby is if he is a bundle of nerves beforehand - which does not come naturally to a man of his personality. He has had to manufacture ways of pumping himself up before games to bring on the nerves.

One of those ways is through music. He completes his pre-match warm-ups with headphones fastened. Through them he will pump a mixture of r'n'b, hip-hop and techno if he feels he needs to build his excitement levels.

"It's just a matter of finding out what works for you. I've found over the past couple of years I've played well and had more fun when I was quite nervous before a game, so I had to keep building my excitement levels and find ways of trying to get myself excited and pumped up before a game."

Early touches help dissipate those nerves and get Gear into the game, like the weekend just gone when he skinned his opposite Chris Ashton in the game's opening minutes, before scoring the first try and having a hand in the second.

You would assume that sort of gamebreaking ability will be rewarded with another start against Scotland, especially considering Joe Rokocoko struggled on the other wing, but although Gear is just a three-test novice he has been around long enough to know there are no guarantees.