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/ Ralph Ellis / 22 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
"Johnson will need his complete flock to stand up to the strutting French cockerel."
England players have been undergoing a series of Jungian psychological tests to boost team bonding. Ralph Ellis wonders if the Red Rose can put a feather in their caps by beating the French or whether this will go down as a bird brained experiment.
So now we know why Chris Ashton loves that flying try celebration. He's actually a bird. And not just any bird, but a yellow peacock.
That's how English rugby's emerging superstar has been categorised in a series of psychological tests carried out under the instruction of Martin Johnson. England's manager seems to be copying the "no stone unturned" approach of his World Cup winning mentor Clive Woodward ahead of this year's competition.
All the elite stars in the Six Nations squad spent a day doing detailed quizzes under the guidance of the team's psychologist Gerard Murphy. They were - wait for this - based on the beliefs of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. At the end of it every player was grouped in a colour - either red, blue, green or yellow - and categorised as a bird, which could have been peacock, dove, owl or eagle.
Confused? Yes, me too. I can remember covering England's football team in the Glenn Hoddle days when faith healer Eileen Drewery was brought in to help prepare for a World Cup. One day Hoddle gave a passionate explanation of her powers to a packed press conference, and when he left the room some of we reporters burst into a chorus of "Come on Eileen".
These tests are nothing new. I can remember at school spending two days answering peculiar questions as part of careers guidance. I got a report telling me I could do anything I wanted except be a journalist (editor's note: they might have got that right then). And there are companies who routinely use these sort of assessments before recruiting staff in an attempt to make sure they get the right men and women for the job.
But it's something fresh in the sporting world, although Johnson's players seem to have taken the initiative on board. Mark Cueto learned he was a "red eagle", and says he asked Mike Tindall what that meant. Cueto tells the tale: "Tins replied: 'It means you're gobby', to which I shouted back: 'I'm bloody not'! 'I rest my case,' he said."
So will all this bird stuff help Johnson to feather his Six Nations nest? The test comes on Saturday night at Twickenham against France, and Johnson will need his complete flock to stand up to the strutting French cockerel. England have made a flying start to the Six Nations, but last season's Grand Slam winners present a significant opposition and I still think the Red Rose price of [1.5] is far too short.
England's manager says he's learned a lot from the exercise to help his team building. But then Hoddle was also totally entranced by Eileen's powers, and it didn't make a lot of difference to stop his team getting knocked out by Argentina. I worry this is just another bird brained idea.
Five things you might not know about Mark Cueto
1. Born in Workington, Cumbria, on Boxing Day 1979, his Spanish great grandfather Antonio had settled in the town in 1900 and set up a fish and chip shop which is still run by his cousins. His great uncle Frank played Rugby League for Warrington.
2. His dad, a civil engineer whose name was also Frank, was a keen rugby fan but when he moved the family to Wolverhampton, then to Crewe the eight-year-old Mark gave up the game and played football until he was 17
3. Asked to make up the numbers in a school rugby match, his talent was immediately obvious and his teacher arranged for him to have trials at Sale. He turned professional only after doing a sports science degree at Manchester University
4. He became a dad last year when son Max was born - his partner Suzie works in Manchester United's hospitality department (Cueto is a United fan)
5. He has specialist sprint training from former Great Britain athlete Darren Campbell to help him solve hamstring problems.
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