The Mirror
FRENCH SIX-NATIONS STAR' S SAVAGE BLAST
Alex Spink Rugby Correspondent
"ENGLAND have been subjected to an astonishing verbal attack by one of the Frenchmen bound for next week's Six Nations showdown at Twickenham.
On the day South Africa captain Corne Krige belatedly took responsibility for the physical assault inflicted on England in their last outing, France star Imanol Harinordoquy started another ruck.
"The only memories I have of England and the English are unpleasant ones," declared the young No.8 forward whose prodigious talent clearly does not extend beyond rugby to diplomacy.
"As far as the English are concerned, I have decided to adopt the same attitude as them: I despise them as much as they despise everybody else! And as long as we beat England I wouldn't mind if we lost every other game in the Six Nations."
The comments, which appear in the latest issue of Rugby World, will dismay Bernard Laporte, the coach of France and a stern disciplinarian, not least because of their motivational value to Clive Woodward.
Harinordoquy continued: "When I first played against England last year, I came to the game with an intense personal motivation because, every time I had played against English teams in my youth, I found it extremely unpleasant.
"They are so chauvinistic and arrogant, they look down on everybody and, in one particular under-21s game I found the attitude of the players and spectators intolerable."
It is nothing new for French players to prepare for what is traditionally the crunch match of the Championship by bad mouthing England in much the same way Brian 'Pitbull' Moore did to them in the early 1990s when branding them "15 Eric Cantonas - brilliant but brutal".
"The English don't like the French and the French don't like the English," Richard Dourthe memorably observed."
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />
FRENCH SIX-NATIONS STAR' S SAVAGE BLAST
Alex Spink Rugby Correspondent
"ENGLAND have been subjected to an astonishing verbal attack by one of the Frenchmen bound for next week's Six Nations showdown at Twickenham.
On the day South Africa captain Corne Krige belatedly took responsibility for the physical assault inflicted on England in their last outing, France star Imanol Harinordoquy started another ruck.
"The only memories I have of England and the English are unpleasant ones," declared the young No.8 forward whose prodigious talent clearly does not extend beyond rugby to diplomacy.
"As far as the English are concerned, I have decided to adopt the same attitude as them: I despise them as much as they despise everybody else! And as long as we beat England I wouldn't mind if we lost every other game in the Six Nations."
The comments, which appear in the latest issue of Rugby World, will dismay Bernard Laporte, the coach of France and a stern disciplinarian, not least because of their motivational value to Clive Woodward.
Harinordoquy continued: "When I first played against England last year, I came to the game with an intense personal motivation because, every time I had played against English teams in my youth, I found it extremely unpleasant.
"They are so chauvinistic and arrogant, they look down on everybody and, in one particular under-21s game I found the attitude of the players and spectators intolerable."
It is nothing new for French players to prepare for what is traditionally the crunch match of the Championship by bad mouthing England in much the same way Brian 'Pitbull' Moore did to them in the early 1990s when branding them "15 Eric Cantonas - brilliant but brutal".
"The English don't like the French and the French don't like the English," Richard Dourthe memorably observed."
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />
