England have struck back after copping a serve from the combined forces of ex-All Black lock Ali Williams and the well-respected French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe.
Williams cast England as a despised Enemy Number One with a superiority complex, although he has since claimed the dastardly French misquoted him. Heeven blasted the behaviour of England's home crowd.
As the build up to the tournament stretched on, it was the best fodder to chew over whatever Williams actually said, or meant to sway. And it has inspired a retort from longtime English sports columnist Paul Hayward, the chief sports writer for the Telegraph.
Hayward portrayed this typical attack on England rugby as outdated and called on the rest of the rugby world to "find a new stereotype with which to belt the hosts." He said coach Stuart Lancaster was cut from a very different cloth to the one Williams was still waving about.
"In fairness to Williams, he would probably claim to be describing an over-arching culture that covers players, spectators and administrators, stretching back decades," wrote Hayward.
"...he was hoping to stoke old hatreds and to cast England for all time as a stuck-up mob with a sense of entitlement. They may display those characteristics again some time, but not on Lancaster's watch. He is allergic to arrogance and is ego-phobic."
Hayward wrote that the Twickenham crowd was now merely playing its part in the laws of home advantage.
"It is noticeably more partisan. It now understands that the point of being there is to support the national team, not tick off an event on the English social calendar.
"All this has shifted England away from the caricature of 15 expensively educated chaps treating international duty as the best excuse a man could find to have a party."
