England coach Eddie Jones paid tribute to "great mate" Jeff Sayle on Thursday and said his loss only underlined the need to keep personalities like the Randwick icon in rugby.
The England mentor joined a chorus of rugby figures to pay tribute to Sayle this week, after news of his passing on Tuesday aged 77.
Jones was coached by Sayle at Randwick, along with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and a host of Australia's greatest rugby players at Coogee Oval in the 1980s and 1990s.
He took a moment unprompted at the beginning of his press conference to acknowledge the loss of his "great mate" and long-time mentor, holding back tears while he was speaking.
"He was a great mate of mine, very sad, very sad day for rugby because he was a good person, gave a lot to the game," he said.
"The number of players he coached, the number of teams he looked after - even in England in 2016, he was the most welcome host.
"I can remember going for a few beers with him at the Coogee Bay Hotel.
"He was a great fellow, a real loss for the game.
"We've got to make sure we keep those characters in rugby because it's so important because it defines our game.
"We've seen at this World Cup, the great enthusiasm and togetherness of the crowds. Opposing teams but great supporters. It's a sad day for rugby."
Cheika wrote a letter in tribute to Sayle this week and also spoke of his influence in a press conference on Wednesday, talking of Sayle's inspirational love for the game and lack of judgement of those around him.
Both Jones and Cheika have big tasks ahead of them, likely on a quarter-final collision course with two matches left to play.
Jones's England can seal a quarter-final spot and all but seal top spot in their pool if they beat Argentina on Saturday night in Tokyo, a result that would likely pit them against Australia in the final eight.
The recovery of duo Mako Vunipola and Jack Nowell has given Jones a healthy squad to pick from and he rated this week's picks as his most difficult.
"I say it every week - it's the most difficult selection," he said.
"We had 31 players competing hard for places.
"We had an outstanding training run yesterday and we've got eight disappointed players but they understand they have a massive role to play in supporting the team.
"Conversely, the guys who have been selected need to support those guys.
"It's a credit to our strength and conditioning staff and medical staff what a great condition we're in. We're six games into our World Cup preparations – four warm-up games and two World Cup games and we have 31 players to select from."
England have lost to Argentina just three times in 23 matches, most recently in 2009, but Jones said they were aware of the Pumas threat.
"We know that Argentina are at their best at World Cups," he said.
"(Argentina hooker) Agustin Creevy spoke of a number things this week, one of which is about how tight they are as a team.
"They're a pretty good team if they can get Creevy to come off the bench.
"The stand-off we know pretty well. He has been a good performer for Castres for a number of years.
"He's very solid in terms of his goalkicking and we know that he'll bring something different to the game. We respect them very greatly."
England takes on Argentina at Tokyo Stadium on Saturday October 5, kicking off at 5:15pm local, 6:15pm AEST, LIVE on Foxtel, RUGBY.com.au RADIO, Rugby Xplorer and RUGBY.com.au RADIO.
