“You’ve got to get your first tackle in early, even if it’s late.”
Ray Graved
“You blindfold yourself and spin around for 10 times and then open your eyes and try to chase it down.”
Canada coach Ric Suggitt on preparing to play against Fiji’s expansive attacking style.
“If we have to play against New Zealand, I’ll explain it like this. To win, their 15 players have to have a diarrhoea and we will have to put snipers around the field shooting at them and then we have to play the best match of our lives.”
Argentina second row Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe on a potential match-up against the All Blacks (in hindsight, beating them wasn’t so hard).
“I’d like to thank the press from the heart of my bottom.”
Nick Easter after England silenced the doubters with their quarter-final win over Australia.
“He’s the sort of player whose brain doesn’t always know where his legs are carrying him.”
Nick Farr-Jones on Campese.
“Grandmother or tails, sir?”
To Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips, Gordonstoun School’s rugby captain, for his pre-match coin-toss preference from an anonymous rugby referee in 1995.
And now for a few quips from our friends in New Zealand:
“Nobody in Rugby should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” Jono Gibbs – Chiefs
“I’m going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes.” Rodney So’ialo – Hurricanes on University
“You guys line up alphabetically by height.” and “You guys pair up in groups of three, then line up in a circle.” Colin Cooper – Hurricanes head coach