English arrogance will be punished, says Castaignede

THOMAS CASTAIGNEDE has backed his France team-mates to punish English “arrogance” in Sunday’s World Cup semi-final in Sydney.

But the Saracens star, who was left out of France’s squad, says inflammatory comments about England from coach Bernard Laporte were over the top.

“The English are always arrogant in their attitude,” Castaignede said last night. “Martin Johnson and all those guys are a bit arrogant.

“But you need to understand that it’s in their culture. They don’t have the same way of thinking as us.

“The English press are arrogant. They were saying ‘let’s go to the final and smash the All Blacks and that will be the only difficult point for us during the World Cup’.”

“I think the French got a bit irritated by that and now they have the opportunity to show something, so that’s why they are getting excited.”

Laporte went so far as to say most people “hated” the England team earlier in the week, but Castaignede felt the France coach had overstepped the mark.

“I think that was a mistake and not really fair,” said the former French star. “There is a good atmosphere between the French and English, even if we don’t have the same habits or culture.” he said.

However, French players have chosen to interpret Clive Woodward’s confident comments this week as further evidence of a superiority complex on the part of the Six Nations champions.

“Woodward said France was not a problem, we’ll see about it on the pitch,” said winger Aurelien Rougerie.

“We have always felt a lot of arrogance coming from the English players and their supporters. Woodward can say what he wants, it's good for our motivation. We know why we are here, we know why we came to Australia, we know who we are.”

Lock Jerome Thion said he had been surprised when he heard Woodward’s statements on an Australian television channel on Monday evening.

“I was shocked to hear a coach saying such a thing but that’s typical English mentality,” he said.

“They complain when people say they don’t like them, but go and talk to Australian people. I don't think they have much love for the ‘Poms’ as they call them. Maybe they will support us on Sunday.”

Hooker Raphael Ibanez, who captained France when they reached the final of the 1999 World Cup, was not impressed.

“I think Woodward likes provocative sentences. He does it regularly against us and has recently attacked Australia. That’s his game,” he said.

The French players found themselves under the full glare of the media spotlight yesterday, after their sweeping win over Ireland at the weekend made them a hot tip to win the World Cup on Saturday week.

Fly-half Frederic Michalak, the great revelation of the tournament, was in particular demand.

When he entered the dark press room where the French had been holding intimate meetings with the small French press corp, Michalak was faced by a dozen photographers, as many cameramen, and about 50 reporters.

“Sure it's a bit surprising,” said the 21-year-old, who has scored 101 points, and is now within sight of All Black Grant Fox's tournament record of 126 points.

“It’s rather entertaining but I’m fed up with the questions of the English journalists about Jonny Wilkinson. My name is Michalak and not Wilkinson.”

In a quiet corner of the lobby, team manager Jo Maso was clearly worried.

“We are going to protect the players from the press but also from the supporters. We have to get organised to make sure they can talk to reporters and sign autographs, but don't lose their concentration and their freedom,” he said.

“It’s very difficult because the hotel has 150 rooms and we can't ask the manager to turn it into a fortress just because of our 50-man delegation.”

Laporte will name his team today.