If you were a top level athlete the day before a big event, what would you do to relax? Watch a film? Card games, video games?
Jacob Stockdale has a more left field activity, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.
The Ulster centre has revealed to the Irish Sun that in order to help him unwind before a big game, he builds lego:
I was thinking, ‘What can I do? What will take four or five hours that isn’t physically strenuous?’, I was in a bookshop and there was a Lego set so I said I’d give it a try and I became obsessed.
Most recently, I built the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. It actually took about seven hours, it was a lot more effort than I expected. I just love it.
Stockdale puts all of his finished pieces on display in his attic and admits that it's like a 'nerd paradise'.
Provincial team mate Iain Henderson has also been converted into a lego addict, and Stockdale revealed that he has had to cop some stick from other players for his choice of hobby, though he reasoned that 'if you call yourself a nerd before anyone else gets the chance, then it’s all right'.
If the 22-year-old manages to put a few tries past New Zealand on Saturday, maybe he'll be able to convert the entire Ireland team into master builders.
