"When the Italians tell you it's pasta on the plate I even check under the sauce to make sure it really is."

- Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson getting into psychology games before their Champions League quarter-final tie against Inter Milan on Wednesday.

"He's such an affable guy off the pitch, but they are the most dangerous type of player - silent assassins, I think they're known as."

- Lions and England centre Jeremy Guscott on his Bath team-mate and Irish centre Kevin Maggs.

"He was hit from behind and told me he didn't see who hit him."

- Eoin Ryan, father of the injured Westmeath goalkeeper Dermot, who ended up in hosptial with a fractured cheekbone.