Jack Willis’s move to France is widely considered one of the finest cross-Channel recruitments in modern rugby history. Following the heartbreaking sudden collapse of his boyhood club, Wasps, in late 2022, the English flanker found an unexpected home with Top 14 heavyweights Toulouse.
Willis seamlessly integrated into Toulouse's dynamic, star-studded pack. His time in France has been defined by an extraordinary, unrelenting run of silverware, including four consecutive Top 14 titles and an Investec Champions Cup crown.
By successfully retaining the prestigious Top 14 Player of the Season award, he became the only player alongside France's icon Antoine Dupont to achieve such back-to-back individual recognition.
He had been using CONKA for a while, quietly, without any fanfare. Then he asked if he could invest.
The first instinct was: he is one of the best egg chasers in the world, absolutely. The second: only if it is actually useful. So the reply was, "As long as it would be strategic." Given he moved to Toulouse, had started training alongside Antoine Dupont, the work quickly began on what a CONKA rugby France partnership would actually look like in practice.
This is the story of how that went. The short version: Following a six-week trial in which athletes in the squad recorded an improvement in cognition, with an average uplift of 10% across the club. Nine of the thirteen athletes tested improved by more than 5%. The longer version involves Duolingo, GCSE French, and Harry Glover's somewhat optimistic assessment of his own language abilities after two years at Stade Francais.
How Jack Willis Became More Than a Customer
Jack was a customer before he was an investor. That matters. CONKA had been working with UK Premiership clubs, and he had seen what the product was doing. After six months of using it, he came to us. CONKA did not approach him.
That is the sequence that works. An athlete uses the product, notices something real, and starts talking about it. No amount of marketing recreates that. When Jack moved to Toulouse and started playing alongside the best club side in France, there was a connection worth being patient about.
The problem was that Jack got injured. In professional rugby, a player who is not on the pitch is not particularly relevant to the performance staff. So the wait began. Not the most natural state of affairs.
Why Science Alone Does Not Close the Deal
Here is something that took longer to learn than it should have: scientists and athletes speak different languages, and neither is wrong.
CONKA has clinical trials running with Durham University and Cambridge University. 1000+ cognitive tests conducted. The formulation is protected under UK patent GB2620279 and is Informed Sport certified, meaning it is batch-tested and safe for professional athletes at the highest level. In trials, CONKA showed an 18.1% performance advantage over caffeine. These are not small numbers.
And yet. A performance director with a PhD will look at that data and nod. The players in the changing room want to know what it actually does, today, before training. The two conversations are completely different, and doing only one is not enough.
The CONKA app bridges that gap. Every rugby player at this level tracks everything: GPS, heart rate, sleep, loads. Showing them their own cognitive data in the app, visually, in real time, lands differently to a slide deck. It makes sense immediately because it fits the way they already think about performance.
The Complication of Doing This in French
Translating a trial report is not as simple as running it through a machine and hoping for the best.
The reports were adapted into French. French-speaking cousins were kind enough to proofread the deck, which was fortunate, because Duolingo, for all its charm, has limits. Harry, who spent two years playing for Stade Francais in Paris, was helpful. He would perhaps have said he was more helpful than he was. We will leave it there.
The worst-case scenario, which loomed larger than anyone would like to admit, was turning up in Toulouse and pitching in French. GCSE French is perfectly serviceable. It was not plan A.
In the end the work was divided. Harry flew out to Toulouse to speak to the players directly, in broken French and English. When you can show someone their own cognitive improvement on a screen in front of them, the language barrier matters less than you would think.
What the Toulouse Trial Actually Showed
The trial ran for six weeks. Athletes measured their baseline cognition before using CONKA, then took further measurements while using it, all through the in-app test. The results were clear.
Every athlete in the squad improved. The average improvement in cognition across the club was 10%. Nine of the thirteen athletes tested recorded improvements of over 5%.
For those curious about what is in the product: CONKA Flow contains Lemon Balm, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Rhodiola Rosea, Bilberry and Ashwagandha, an adaptogen that has shown statistically significant improvements in endurance, attention and working memory in controlled trials.[1] Ashwagandha has been studied extensively for its adaptogenic and cognitive effects -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. CONKA Clear contains Alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha GPC), Ginkgo Biloba, Glutathione, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR), Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin C and Vitamin B12. High-dose Alpha GPC supplementation has shown significantly better cognitive performance scores compared to placebo in resistance-trained individuals, with particular improvements in tasks requiring attention and processing speed.[2] Alpha GPC has been studied extensively for its effects on cognitive performance and attention -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. You can read more on the full ingredients page.
What This Means Going Forward
Jack Willis has since become the first player since Dupont to retain the Top 14 Player of the Year award. He was named player of the match in the Top 14 final win over Montpellier. And he's done all of that with a brain that is operating at a superior level on CONKA.
50-plus elite sports clubs now use CONKA, including NFL teams, Premier League clubs and England Rugby. Toulouse adds to that in a way that felt genuinely hard-won. The best brain health supplement is only as good as the evidence behind it, and six years have gone into building that evidence.
France was always going to happen. It just required patience, a willing investor, and rather more Duolingo than anyone planned.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is CONKA and how does it work?
A: CONKA makes daily brain shots, Flow in the morning and Clear in the afternoon, designed to support cognitive performance throughout the day. The formulas are backed by clinical trials with Durham University and Cambridge University, a UK patent (GB2620279), and are Informed Sport certified for safe use by professional athletes.
Q: Is CONKA used by professional rugby clubs?
A: Yes. CONKA is used by over 50 elite sports clubs, including Premier League football clubs, NFL teams and English rugby organisations. Stade Toulousain completed a six-week trial in which every athlete improved their cognition score, with an average uplift of 10% across the squad.
Q: What are the best brain supplements in the UK for athletes?
A: The most credible brain health supplements in the UK for athletes combine clinical evidence, third-party batch testing and transparent ingredient lists. CONKA is Informed Sport certified and holds UK patent GB2620279. Its clinical trials showed an 18.1% performance advantage over caffeine across 914 cognitive tests.
Q: Are nootropics UK-legal and safe for professional sport?
A: Nootropics are legal in the UK. The key for professional athletes is whether a product is batch-tested for banned substances. CONKA is certified by Informed Sport, which tests every batch against the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list, making it safe for use at the highest levels of professional sport.
Q: How do you trial CONKA at a sports club?
A: CONKA runs structured trials using the Conquer app, which measures each athlete's baseline cognition before they begin using the product and tracks changes throughout. The data is presented visually so athletes and performance professionals can see individual and squad-wide results clearly.
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