The debate rages over the gender of SA sensation Caster Semenya, the Ashes mind-games have well and truly begun and the All Blacks are all getting a tad paranoid ? all this and more in our sports quotes of the week!

GENDER DEFENDER

South Africa's world champion Caster Semanya has hogged the headlines this week, but unfortunately is has been for her looks, not so much for her achievements on the track in Berlin.

Questions regarding her gender have caused a storm back home in SA with her family, coach and friends all coming out in her defence. I would imagine the family would know best, but unfortunately Caster will be under this cloud of doubt until the results of the IAAF investigation are revealed.

"Then Caster said: 'Do you want me to pull down my pants that you can see?' Those same people came to her later and said they were extremely sorry." ? Semenya's coach Michael Seme reveals the runner's response after she was blocked from using a female public toilet in SA because of her appearance?

"We know you want to talk to her, but she is young, she is inexperienced and she is not able to reply properly to all your questions. - IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss answers journalists? questions after the 800m final. Weiss appeared at the press briefing instead of Semenya to avoid the 18-year-old athlete being overwhelmed.

"I will answer for her. The decision not to put her up here was taken by the IAAF and the South African federation. I repeat, she was not prepared for a situation like this.

"If at the end of the investigation we find out she is not a woman, we will withdraw the medal and redistribute it. But there is nothing which would have stopped her from running today." - Weiss lays it all on the line.

"We had to keep a level head and do the business. We all may have our personal opinions, but professionally you just have to go out there and do your best in the race." - Jennifer Meadows of Great Britain, who finished third in the 800m final on Wednesday, offers her opinion.

"[The controversy] doesn't bother me that much because I know she's a woman ? I raised her myself," Semenya's paternal grandmother Maputhi Sekgala defends Caster.

"What can I do when they call her a man, when she's not really a man? It is God who made her look that way."

"I wish they would leave my daughter alone".

"She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times." - Semenya's father, Jacob Semenya, has no doubts.

TRI-NATIONS GOES MENTAL

With the All Blacks and Wallabies going head-to-head this weekend, we were expecting the usual mental warfare and we weren't disappointed! The predictable 'McCaw is a cheat' barbs have been thrown by the Wallabies camp, while it seems the All Blacks' paranoia knows no bounds?

"But despite being captured repeatedly failing to enter the breakdown from behind the last man's feet, McCaw proved 'Mr Untouchable' by escaping without a single offside penalty all night. Referee Craig Joubert only pinged McCaw twice for unrelated ruck offences." ? the Daily Telegraph labels All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw a crook.

"I wouldn't think so," McCaw's team-mate Jimmy Cowan isn't buying any of it?.

"I don't see it that way - maybe if I was playing for Southland and he was playing for Canterbury I'd be in a different boat - but when he's playing in the same team I don't see too much of it." ? unless he is playing against him?

"Richie is a very good player, but he does get away with a fair bit.

"He tries to make it look as though he's come through the gate but he hasn't really. The entry point for his hands and arms is often from the side, and then he swings his bum around. And that's on opposition ball.

"On his own team's ball, he comes in from the side heaps of times. Straight in from the side. The refs tend not to referee the team with the ball as much as the team without it." - Former Australian coach Bob Dwyer throws some fuel on the fire.

Desperate to stop anybody spying on them, the All Blacks are taking security to extreme measures.

Take a look at these conversations between Kiwi security guards at a recent All Blacks' practice session.

"I'll check on the roof,'' said one guard. ''Who's that over there?'' said another. ''We'll go and check'' said a third as he and a colleague scouted the eastern perimeter of the oval. ''How did those guys get up there,'' said one more as he saw two suspects in the southern stand, who were caught.

One guard told two print journalists to leave as they watched training from outside the southern gates. ''You have to move along,'' he said. Then when told they were standing on a public footpath, he added: ''I understand that. It' a private session.''

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