England winger Dan Luger has spoken of the sense of belief that prevails within the England Rugby squad in this years World Cup.
In his mind England are a lot better prepared than they were for the 1999 tournament, in which he was a key squad member, and he says they are looking to go all the way this time.
Speaking on his personal website Luger said:
"There's a great atmosphere in the camp - obviously there's a bit of tension and competition as everyone wants to be involved and play - but this is a good thing and overall spirits amongst the boys are high."
"It seems weird that we're over half-way through the tournament now. For ages it always felt like it was a long way away, then the opening weeks just whizzed by and now we're heading into the best bits."
"Hopefully we'll get to the final stages this time. I was involved in 1999 and the feeling this time round in the camp is totally different. Certainly in that tournament we weren't as well prepared for the Southern Hemisphere teams and there wasn't such a sense of belief in the squad."
"We've come into this year's tournament on the back of victories against all the top sides in the world, we know we can beat them and the preparation for this World Cup has been incredibly thorough."
"We'll take this confidence into our games but take nothing for granted. We all know that all it would take is a couple of mistakes on the pitch and we'd be on a plane on our way home on Monday and nobody wants that."
Luger also spoke of his relief at the '16th man' incident being put behind him and said he was amazed at the way the meida blew the incident out of all proportion.
Visit Dan Luger's website at
www.Dan-Luger.com