Former France captain
Lionel Nallet claims the Grand Slam champions will go to
Twickenham on Saturday as underdogs.
Both England and France
have won their opening two Six Nations matches, but Nallet
believes home advantage will give England the pre-match
edge.
"The English are on the up
and we, well we are going there as underdogs," he admitted.
"We still have in our
heads memories of the summer tour and the Australian
experience. It is vital we take on the English with an
inferiority complex while still retaining the lessons of
these dispiriting losses.
"Just because we have won
two Six Nations matches doesn't mean that everything is
going smoothly and that those type of defeats can't happen
again," he added.
The Racing-Métro 92 lock
also echoed his coach
Marc Lièvremont's comments
about the traditional hostility between France and England.
"There is a history
between the two countries. It's like a cat and a dog. At the
end of the day it's not meant badly for we don't like each
other without really knowing why. These days it is a
tradition and each of us from both sides plays it up a
little," he added.
France go into the match
having won their previous eight games in the Six Nations,
but Nallet is all to aware of what happened the last time
'Les Bleus' journeyed to England. The 34-year-old was
captain of France that day as his side were blown away
34-10.
"I remember that we were overwhelmed," he
recalled. "It is the type of match where you are taken
unawares and you just don't succeed in reacting positively.
We were outmatched in both combativity and speed," he added.
England manager Martin
Johnson will be hoping his energized team can put in a
similar performance to that memorable victory, and he
brushed off Lièvremont's talk of enmity.
"If I read Marc's quotes
correctly they respect us a team," said Johnson. "They have
said from the outset that if they win here they will win the
Championship. We have been through one of these big
build-ups already for the Wales game. That was a big
challenge for us as a team and some of our individuals.
"I thought we handled it
well. We are used to it, it is what we want. These big games
are what we work for. There will be pressure, there will be
quotes used by the media to generate the hype. There is
enough history in this game and in the history of the two
countries to spice it up," he added.
Fly-half Toby Flood also
played down Lièvremont's comments, saying it showed the
French "are taking notice of us and asking questions about
how we are playing".
Earlier this week
Lièvremont said: "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 all
don't like the English," he explained.
"We beat Ireland yet left
Dublin with the encouragement of all the Irish who said 'For
pity's sake beat the English'," he added. "With the Scots
it's the same thing. It is also what gives you strength
against the English, more than just because of rugby."
But Lièvremont admitted
that he respected the current England side, admitting they
were ahead of France in terms of World Cup planning.
"This insular country, who
always drape themselves in the national flag, their hymns,
their chants, their traditions. They are people who one
regards as a very proud people. But we are also aware, in
terms of planning and preparation, that the English are
already in 2011 World Cup mode. We can feel that all of the
English players are physically on a different level," he
added.
