England head coach Steve Borthwick and captain Maro Itoje react to the draw
- 387
Steve Borthwick, head coach
On the draw:
"It feels like the road to the World Cup has started now, it's really going to accelerate from here. There's lots of talk and buzz around it."
On England-Wales at RWC 2015:
"As with every England-Wales game, it was full of passion, full of spirit. I'm sure this will be the same."
On the seeding system, with South Africa and New Zealand on course to meet in the quarter-final:
"The principles of the draw were set out some time ago and everybody knew what the world ranking implications would be. Lots of people like to plan out the permutations - who knows what's going to pan out."
On when he will start planning for RWC 2027:
"We obviously have provisional plans in place, which we can start to firm up. Immediately after the upcoming Six Nations, I'll be heading out to Australia with the head of logistics and the head of performance and getting the detail of our plans in place.
On having near misses in last two Rugby World Cups, and what it takes to make the extra step:
"The level of experience in the England squad, we know those margins are very tight. Every team is top-quality in the knockouts, so your level of experience counts, how together you are, how good tactically. We are going to continue to work very hard in that direction. I expect the intensity of our training to go up and we will continue to develop the scenario aspect of that to replicate those game situations that finals of World Cups demand."
Maro Itoje, captain
On being drawn with Wales:
"It's nice to know who we are playing, it's no longer a guessing game. World Cups are always so exciting, we players relish the opportunity.
"Wales obviously won the game in 2015 but hopefully this time round it will be a little bit different."
On having near misses in last two Rugby World Cups, and what it takes to make the extra step:
"It ultimately comes down to big moments and how accurate and clinical we can be in those moments. You can see this team take advantage of those moments more and more. We want to build on that and make sure that by the time we get to 2027, when those big moments come, we're ready to take them."
