TOUGH LESSON

“Me getting absolutely smothered by Thierry Dusautoir and Vincent Clerc, which was the story of that RWC quarter-final. They played extremely well.

“After the disappointment of 2003 (knocked out in the RWC semis), this was a big World Cup for us and we got outplayed by a really passionate French team. We didn’t have any answers to the way they were playing, we were under so much pressure.

“I remember this game for all the wrong reasons. Looking back, that experience was a big part of the reason we won in 2011 and 2015. It was the learnings we took from this World Cup and this game.”