KEY POINTS:
MARSEILLES - Where Jake White leads, Bernard Laporte follows - especially when it comes to England and their mountainous pack of forwards.
Less than a week after White, the coach of the Springboks, cast the first public aspersions on the reigning world champions' tactics at the business end of proceedings he worked himself up into quite a lather on the subject of their line-out, Laporte, the coach of France, could be heard complaining about red rose tactics at the scrum.
Where have we heard this kind of thing before? Try 2003, when the entire sport was running scared of Martin Johnson and company.
England take on Les Bleus in Marseilles on Sunday (NZ time) in the last of three preparatory matches ahead of next month's World Cup, and they have made little secret of their intention to test the mettle of the French scrum, an obvious weak point in the Tricolore armoury, every bit as ruthlessly as they did at Twickenham six days ago.
It may not be quite so easy for Brian Ashton's team on this occasion, partly because Stade Velodrome is such inhospitable territory for visiting sides and partly because Andrew Sheridan, the man at the heart of the set-piece effort in London, is still in hospital, having been assaulted by an unusually brave insect.
He will not be seen in Provence on Sunday.
These salient details did not stop Laporte clambering on to his soapbox.
Neither did the fact that France won last week's game despite conceding 66 per cent of the possession.
Equally strikingly, the coach appeared to ignore the recent directive from the International Rugby Board demanding that coaches refrain from highlighting any technical issues they might have with opposing sides in an attempt to influence referees and touch judges.
If the IRB manages to persuade the likes of White and Laporte to keep it buttoned, it will be one of the miracles of the age.
"It would be nice if England scrummaged properly," Laporte said.
"It would be nice if Sheridan scrummaged properly. Then, it would be a good contest."
The coach felt Sale's 20st loose-head specialist had been allowed to get away with questionable binding during his comprehensive outmanoeuvring of Jean-Baptiste Poux and Nicolas Mas at Twickenham.
In reality, Laporte's primary concern surrounds the fragile nature of his own front row.
His most experienced prop, Sylvain Marconnet, remains a doubt for the World Cup, having broken a leg during a skiing holiday.
His most technically proficient operative, Pieter de Villiers, is also struggling for fitness.
The coach left it to the team manager of France, Jo Maso, to perform the spin doctor's duties on behalf of the Tricolore unit.
"Our scrum has not been so bad when you look at it closely," he said.
"We were never knocked over by a genuine English shove. We have been deficient technically, but not physically, and we will improve."
Somehow, he sounded less than convinced by his own argument.
Even in Sheridan's absence Perry Freshwater, who plays club rugby with Perpignan and knows pretty much everything there is to know about the likes of Poux and Mas, is his replacement. England have a heaven-sent opportunity to leave a mark on the French tomorrow; a mark the World Cup hosts would find difficult to erase ahead of the serious activity beginning on 7 September.
That night, France confront Argentina in the opening match of the tournament.
Argentina are the proud owners of the most aggressive scrum in the game.
- INDEPENDENT
