Lood de Jager

“When you get a real big scare and things get put into perspective when you get a condition like that, honestly for me every day out on the field is a massive blessing at the moment”

“Whether it is for Panasonic or hopefully for the Boks later in the year, I’m just very thankful to be out on the field.”

“Missing out on last year and rugby in general, I have found my love for the game again. You feel like a kid again every time you are on the field”

“Can’t say too much. I’m taking it game by game. I don’t want to say too much but hopefully, I will be there and it will be good for me.”

“It’s just winning is a habit, the same as losing. We pride ourselves on our winning record and we try to keep it every week we take the field.”

“I reckon we have got the best Japanese players in the competition mixed with some decent foreigners.”

“They prioritise family time for the players, It starts at the top, starts with the staff; the whole organisation is run the right way and it filters down to the players and filters down to everybody – and we have got very good Japanese players”

“The schedule in general, there are a few more bye weeks. The club gives us a lot of free time, a lot of time to spend with the family, so for me it has been probably the biggest positive about moving to Panasonic Wild Knights.”

“As well as still working hard and still getting all of the work done, the schedule, they have got it right”

“I reckon it’s a lot to do with the schedule as well. You have got a lot more free time with a young family. My family is something that is very, very important to me.”

“It’s completely different, it’s chalk and cheese from northern hemisphere rugby. It’s just a good attacking mindset of the team, how we want to play with the ball in hand. It’s good to be contributing to the style of play the way I am.”

“For me, playing in the northern hemisphere and playing in South Africa for so long, it was just like a breath of fresh air to come here.”

“Test rugby and that kind of stuff, it’s understandable you have to be very good at set-piece, good at defence and stuff like that.”

“People were driving around the streets with flags, honking and playing music. It was an unbelievable thing to experience.”

“It was very special indeed winning that for the second time (in a row) and seeing how much it meant for the people in the country,”

“I thought against England, with their performances earlier on, that it would be a bit of an easy game but that was not the case. They played extremely well and it was even more stressful than the quarter-final.”

“So the quarter-final I watched on my own, semi-final actually with friends. I knew the French would be a tough game.”

“. It was a gradual build-up. I’d say from when I could start taking my heart rate above 100 it was I’d say another eight to 10 weeks before I was allowed to fully train, start training with the team.”

“That was probably four-and-a-half, five months down the road before I could finally start training and taking my body to max heart rate levels”

“It was all worked out by our coach and obviously by the cardiologist, the people who are experts in the field. The first 10 weeks was nothing, I couldn’t get my heart rate above 100, I wasn’t allowed to take my heart rate above 100 beats per minute, so it was just rest and then gradually it was two weeks of heart rate between 100 and 120 and then 120 to 140 and gradually they worked it up until I was allowed train at the maximum.”