Everyone hates England says France rugby coach

Few sporting events channel nationalist ardour and rekindle old prejudices as much as the Six Nations, an annual festival of rugby and score settling. To prove the point, France's coach Marc Lievremont has given full vent to his darkest opinions of the English before the two countries meet at Twickenham this Saturday in what will be the biggest game of this year's tournament.
 
The former France player threw down the gauntlet in spectacular fashion. He branded the English "insular" and claimed that his side would have the support of the other nations in the competition when they take on Martin Johnson's team.
 
The encounter is expected to decide the winners of this year's tournament and will be a good indicator of the two sides' strength ahead of the World Cup later this year. The stakes are already high and Lievremont has attempted to score some psychological points before the kick-off.
 
"We don't really like the English, and it's better to say that than be hypocritical," he announced. "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 and then among all these nations we have one huge thing in common: we don't like the English."
 
He then provided an example of that antipathy towards Johnson's men. "We beat Ireland yet left Dublin with the encouragement of all the Irish who said 'For pity's sake, beat the English'. With the Scots, it's the same thing," explained Lievremont.
 
And he wasn't finished there. He also found time to describe England as an "insular country who always drape themselves in the national flag".
 
England's gigantic coach Johnson, who made a habit of winding up his opponents as a player, refused to be drawn into a slanging match. But most experts believe that Lievremont has scored a massive own goal, and the England team will now be doubly determined to get one over on the old enemy on Saturday.
 
Publicly Johnson gently suggested that Les Blues, who have a reputation for being slightly erratic, might be running scared. "I don't know about fear, maybe there is a little bit of that there," he said.
 
He then pointed to some similarly provocative comments from Wales coach Warren Gatland ahead of England's opening game in Cardiff last month, which England won.
 
Johnson went on: "I quite enjoy it. Everyone here wants us to win. It may not be the case around the rest of Europe but that doesn’t matter. People like to beat England. There is history involved with that and most of it is not rugby history. That is what makes the tournament fun, that is why people like it. It is passion. People want their country to win." ·