Three Great Quotes

1 : Rassie Erasmus [South Africa]

“In South Africa [pressure] is not having a job, or having a close relative who is murdered. Rugby should not create pressure, it should create hope. We have a privilege, not a burden.

“There are so many good things in South Africa but always in the past, we seem to look at all the bad things. We just decided, 'Listen, let's stand together and work really hard and play well on the field and then from that all the other things will come out later.' And that's what we did.”

2 : Eddie Jones [England]

“No one thinks we can win, there's no pressure on us, we're going to relax and have a great week.

“New Zealand will be thinking about their 'threepeat'. They talk about walking towards the pressure but this week the pressure is going to be chasing them down the street.

“The busiest bloke in Tokyo this week will be Gilbert Enoka, their mental skills coach. They have to deal with all this pressure of winning the World Cup three times and it is potentially the last game for their greatest coach and they will be thinking about those things.”

3 : Steve Hansen and Kieran Read [New Zealand]

“I'll find a nice, quiet place at home and sit down and have a few drinks with [wife] Tash and we'll have a few laughs and 'salute' a few times and probably get drunk.

“Stop there, Steve,” skipper Kieran Read suddenly interjected.

“Kieran is still only 30-odd and I'm 60 so what he's thinking about doesn't happen too often. Well, not as much as I'd like anyway.”