"I'm sure the whale is hurting more than us."

- Captain Grant Dalton after his boat was dam- aged when striking the mammal in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht race this week.

"Brown (Jock) and McCann (Fergus) are very bad, they are very strange."

- Former Celtic striker Paolo Di Canio commenting on the Scottish club's general manager Brown and managing director McCann after Dutch coach Wim Jansen left the club having won the league title for the club for the first time in a decade.

"Probably the most under-equipped group of Englishmen to set foot in Australia since the first fleet."

-Australian Rugby Union chief Dick McGruther on England's tour selection down under which includes 17 uncapped players.

"I don't remember anything of the night at all. I can just remember waking up in the hospital and thinking `What am I doing here?' I just thought I'd been knocked out - I didn't think it was as serious as it was. They told me afterwards that I had a very slim chance of surviving."

-Boxer Spencer Oliver who recovered from a brain clot following his world title fight last week.