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'That's very nice!' – Brodie Retallick responds to Eddie Jones' All Blacks compliments

October 21, 2019

The England coach labelled the All Blacks as the greatest team in sporting history.

Brodie Retallick was happy with the compliment delivered by England's Eddie Jones, labelling the All Blacks as the "greatest team that has ever been in sport."

With England and the All Blacks now on a Rugby World Cup semi-final collision course, Jones is looking to pile the pressure on his next opponents, raising expectations of a third straight Webb Ellis Cup for New Zealand.

"We have a challenge this week because we are playing the greatest team that has ever been in sport," Jones said.

"If you look at their record, no other team has that over a sustained period of time.

"If you look at their record, I don't think there's a team that comes close to them for sustainability.

"They are playing in the toughest competition in the world against the best all the time."

Asked about Jones' comments while fronting media this afternoon though, Retallick was surprised about the compliment.

"I suppose that's very nice of Eddie," Retallick began.

"I don't know any statistics or anything like that, I guess that's nice of him to say, but it's not something that this team's focussed on.

"Good on him."

Retallick was also asked about whether or not Jones' side can be considered the greatest England team of all time, better than the 2003 World Cup winners.

"I'm not going to call them the greatest, probably because I haven't watched enough of England in years gone by.

"I know that they're a very good English team at the moment, they've got great attacking assets across the park, and a mobile tight five that are scoring tries from 25 metres out.

"They're definitely a strong England side."

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