If there are more superstitious people in the world than professional sportspeople then I haven’t come across them.

As well as listing some of those superstitions I’ve come across, perhaps I can explain why they are so common: Left boot before right boot (my personal routine); strapping a part of your body that doesn’t really need it; what you eat pre game; sexual abstinence (or not) leading up to the game. These are some of the more common superstitions.

Guys I play with won’t touch the sideline as they run onto the field. Another will always hit the grass with his left foot first. Plenty of players wear the same thing either pre game or during the game (“lucky undies” – another one of mine).

Little things can also play on your mind after a particularly good or bad game. I remember buying a new pair of boots the week before a game and then breaking my leg that weekend. First thing I did when I came back to training - gave away the boots.

Teams will also try and do the same thing before a game that worked for the last one – train at the same time, always run the same way around the field for the warm up – and don’t even think about trying to change something game day. We wore a black jersey (instead of the usual green) before our local derby at Christmas time. We won but didn’t play well. Haven’t worn the jerseys since.

Coaches can be the worst

Sometimes coaches can be the worst. Maybe this is because they don’t play so have to rely on the preparation to make themselves feel better. Our coach last year put us in the visitors change room (for a home game) because he wanted a siege mentality - the visitors change rooms aren’t as nice as ours. We won, and then had to stay in those change rooms for the rest of the season.

Superstitions are everywhere in rugby and also in most professional sports – bouncing the ball a certain number of times before you serve in tennis, two practice swings before you address the golf ball, even Michael Jordan used to wear his university basketball shorts underneath his game shorts because they brought him luck. Whatever it is, it can affect performance and wherever possible I try not to mess with another guy’s ritual.

Superstitions, habits, routines or whatever you want to call them are used to calm the mind and if they are not followed, or circumstances don’t permit, performance can be jeopardized. Sports psychologists reckon that with so many unknowns and uncontrollables in sport, the need to control something – anything - is enormous.

Imagine the pressure of a final in the Olympics. Possibly your entire career, and certainly the last few years of your life, has been dedicated to a particular moment that relies on so many little things going right. We certainly want to get right those few things that we can actually control. It is all part of the mindset that says – ‘I will play well if I do the same things I did last time I played well’.

Sound silly? What about you? Do you walk under ladders? If you drop the salt do you have to throw a pinch over your shoulder? Are the numbers 13, or 87 or 666 unlucky?

Next time you hope for something and cross your fingers, think about what on earth that could possibly do to help. And by the way, next Friday (the 13^th), don’t worry, nothing bad is going to happen… touch wood.