RUGBY:MARTIN JOHNSON won the majority of his Twickenham duels with France when he was England captain and a certain amount of Gallic insecurity clearly still lingers. Marc Lievremont may have thought he was being clever when he described England as "an insular country" disliked by all their opponents but, if so, he has picked a desperately risky week to antagonise les rosbifs.
As Wales’s head coach, Warren Gatland, discovered this month, this generation of English players respond positively to pre-match goading. The temptation to tell Lievremont where to stick his apparent prejudices must have been huge but Johnson indicated instead his squad would respond with actions. “What Tom Palmer said last week was true. People like to beat England. There’s history involved and not just rugby history. But that’s what makes this tournament fun, that’s why people like it. It doesn’t change what we do on the field. The bigger the game, the more it goes back to the basics.”
Lievremont was rather less diplomatic. “We don’t really like them, and it’s better to say that than be hypocritical. We respect them, well in my case at least I respect them, but you couldn’t say we have the slightest thing in common with them. We appreciate our Italian cousins with whom we share the same quality of life, we appreciate the Celts and their conviviality . . . among all these nations we have one huge thing in common: we don’t like the English!”
There was more – “This insular country who always drape themselves in the national flag, their hymns, their chants, their traditions . . . ” – although Lievremont did temper his comments by describing England as currently the best team in Europe.
Only three years ago, nevertheless, Lievremont labelled the visiting hooker Mark Regan “a clown” following England’s win in Paris. It also follows the well-trodden path taken by Gatland, who chose to launch a stinging attack on Dylan Hartley before the Wales fixture in Cardiff which England won 26-19. “We’ve already been through one of these big build-ups before the Wales game,” said Johnson. “There’ll be pressure and people saying things and quotes that get used by the media to generate the hype. That’s all part of the game. There’s enough history between the two countries to spice it up but it comes down to what happens on the field.
“Any team in this championship would have been proud of their win in Dublin. All the talk about them not playing well at Twickenham and not travelling well is dangerous talk for me. It’s not about what I said, or Marc Lievremont said, or whoever. It’s about what the players do and that’s what we’ll concentrate on this week.”
The outhalf Toby Flood spoke for many England players, however, in wondering aloud what Lievremont hopes to gain by antagonising his hosts this week. “I like going to Paris, so it’s quite frustrating to find out they don’t like me now,” said Flood dryly. “My mother once said she thought I was adequate. That’s about as much love as I ever get.”
England will see how Lewis Moody goes in training today before deciding whether to recall their captain to the backrow for Saturday’s game. Moody has been drafted back into the squad after proving his fitness for Bath but Leicester’s Tom Croft is being allowed more time to rediscover his match fitness after three months out with a fractured shoulder. Instead Harlequins’ Chris Robshaw has been summoned as cover for the injured Joe Worsley (neck), with Alex Corbisiero deputising for David Wilson (ankle). Johnson will announce his starting XV on Thursday.
