Quotes of the Year

“I was the Englishman who gate crashed the Welsh party. Phil Bennett got the ball and ran up his own back side and got lost as usual. He threw a hospital pass to JPR who got high tackled and I shouted for the ball and if he’d seen it was me he probably wouldn’t have passed . . . I’ve got the DVD somewhere but I never watch it. Every second is seared in my mind forever.” – England‘s John Pullin recalls his walk on part in THAT try on the 40th anniversary of the Barbarians famous win over New Zealand.
“Statistics are like bikinis, they show a lot but not the whole thing.” – Scotland interim coach Scott Johnson.
“I have never read the law book in my life, it’s disastrous for a referee to know that law book too well.” – Nigel Owens.
“We are the most dominant team in the history of the world.” – Typically low key and modest motivational sticker in the All Blacks team room ahead of the England game.
“Whether we realised it at the time or not, we had bloody good players, bloody good coaches and a brilliant opportunity to go and do it.” – World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson as England celebrate their World Cup win ten years ago.
“We survived a sh*t storm.” – Very difficult to improve on Steve Hansen’s summing up of the All Blacks win over Ireland in Dublin.
“Mr Gosper of the IRB has said a few things, but I don’t care. He’s not a Saracens shareholder as far as I am aware.” – Saracens chairman Nigel Wray believes the IRB should butt out of the acrimonious Euro row.
“The Heineken Cup is a club tournament and it should be run by clubs.” – And Premiership CEO Mark McCafferty doesn’t think the Unions should be involved either.
“I’ve not come here for a holiday and simply to take a salary.” – Springbok legend Bryan Habana signs on the dotted line at Toulon back in July for a reported £450,000 per year. So far he has played a total of 190 minutes rugby and will be out until April with injury.
“I let Saints down because I wasn’t there when they needed me. That will always hang over me.” – Northampton Saints hooker and captain Dylan Hartley reflects on his sending-off in the Aviva Premiership final.
“They just have to be careful of the baguettes. The whiter the bread, the longer you’re dead, is the way I put it.” – Toulon performance director Steve Walsh with dietary advice to rugby players heading to France.
“92% of the population will be within 50 miles of a World Cup venue.” – England2015 chief Debbie Jevons on the announcement of the venues for the forthcoming World Cup.
“Last weekend I went home with a dead leg, a concussion and a bleeding ear and she didn’t care much for that, she still wanted her feed at 7, 3 and 11 and I was the man for the job.” – Brian O’Driscoll on the joys of fatherhood as daughter Sadie takes centre stage.
“I miss hurting people, being hurt and waking up in the middle of the night in pain.” – Saracens flanker and hardman Jacques Burger badly missed the physical side of rugby during his 18 months on the sidelines with injury.
“Rugby doesn’t need to get too hung about laws. In the last few months I have been privileged to be involved in two of the greatest rugby games and sporting spectacles it is possible to imagine. When you look at those matches are you seriously telling me this great sport has a problem? You know and I know, everybody in rugby knows, that the laws work fine when the intent is there from both teams to play positive attacking ‘legal’ rugby.” – Never a truer word. Nigel Owens again.