Eddie Jones on what he wants for Japan
“We want to be the team that everyone wants to watch at the World Cup. To do that, a top-four finish would be fantastic. We will do everything we can over the next two years to make sure the team is in the best position to achieve that result. We’re going to have to play above ourselves and we understand that it is going to take an extraordinary effort, but there is no reason why we can’t do that.”
Romania head coach David Gérard on playing South Africa
"If we prepare to play South Africa as if it’s a dream to play the world champions, it will be a nightmare! We need to prepare every game to be competitive. We have to stop seeing the fact that we are playing them as an achievement. No, an achievement is if you compete with them, because it’s still rugby. I’m not here as a tourist; I'm not going to Australia with people who just want to be there and enjoy being on TV. I want Romanian players who have the knowledge to sacrifice themselves for three games. If people think Romania will just focus on Georgia and Italy, I think that’s disrespectful to the sport. If we respect rugby, we have to be competitive."
Hong Kong China head coach Logan Asplin on facing his countrymen New Zealand and hosts Australia
"There's a bit of buzz in the room. For me and Josh (Joshua Hrstich, captain) it's even more significant being kiwis ourselves. For our players, playing the All Blacks is a massive task and a massive opportunity. To also play the hosts, as daunting as it is, you couldn't have scripted it better. We're staking a claim to be everyone's second favourite team. The opportunity to represent Hong Kong China 15s for the first time at the World Cup is significant. To draw both of those two teams, playing in front of big crowds, is going to be a great experience, but also no better way to test yourself. This morning I said this would be my dream draw. We played Chile two years ago and lost by four points in a really winnable game. We've talked a little bit about that. We're really chasing that exposure of playing more meaningful games against those group 3 and group 4 teams."
Spain head coach Pablo Bouza on facing Los Pumas
"I didn't want to play against Argentina because they're at a very high level, and besides I played there and worked with the team for almost eight years. I know some of the staff and I have friends there. This year, Argentina had a great season and is among the top four teams in the world, not in terms of ranking, but in terms of their play, even though they didn't get some results."
Spain captain Jon Zabala on facing club teammate, Puma captain Julián Montoya
“We trained this morning and when the forwards' practice finished, we found out we’d be playing against each other. We joked a bit about it, took it in good humor, and kept the energy high.”
Dan Carter on Australia, New Zealand and Samoa
"What an incredible draw, to see it all out here now and everyone starting to make their predictions for how it's going to go, very exciting. The beauty of having six pools is that you can really build into the World Cup, especially for those top teams. So to be honest, it doesn't really matter (when Australia play New Zealand). You're going to be playing each other at some stage so what you've got to do is build consistently for seven matches, throughout six weeks, to get the job done.
"I think under Scott Robertson the priority during this Rugby World Cup cycle as been to grow depth. We (New Zealand) lost a lot of world class, experienced players after 2023 so he knew that for 2027 he needed depth and he's been trying to build that. They've shown on many occasions what they're capable of and the incredible rugby they can play but they realise they're not at a level to go on and win a World Cup quite yet, and they know there's a lot of work to be done over the next two years.
"Talking to a lot of my Samoan friends, they were really on edge about the potential of not being at a Rugby World Cup because rugby means to much to them (they were the last team to qualify). They've produced some of the world's best players and they are such a proud rugby nation. The fact that they've qualified, they want to not just make up the numbers. They want to be the team that makes the big upsets of this Rugby World Cup."
