Johann van Graan: 'I don't believe it matters who you face, you've just got to beat them'

The Munster Head Coach was speaking at the Irish Examiner Rugby World Cup Tournament Preview last Monday.

Munster Head Coach Johann van Graan has played down the significance of Ireland's potential Rugby World Cup quarter-final opponents, saying of South Africa and New Zealand, "you've probably got to beat both to win the World Cup." The crunch tie between the two southern hemisphere teams tomorrow morning (kick-off is 10:45am Irish time) will go a long way in determining Ireland's potential quarter-final opponents.

Van Graan was asked, if he were in Joe Schmidt’s shoes, whether he would have a preference in facing either South Africa or New Zealand at the quarter-final stage, the Munster Head Coach joked, “No, that’s why they are Joe Schmidt’s shoes,” before adding that he thinks Ireland "believe they can win the World Cup."

In the video from the event, van Graan states that "for any team to win the World Cup, in my view you've got to do two things - one, you’ve got to get out of your pool, and then you’ve got to win three big Test matches in a row and not a lot of teams in the world can do that."

The Munster Head Coach also discussed his time so far with Munster at the event, where he was joined on stage by newly-appointed Munster senior coach Stephen Larkham, along with Irish Examiner columnists Ronan O'Gara and Donal Lenihan.