Laporte kicks off war of words before semi-final
France lit the touchpaper for another explosive clash against England by claiming: "Most people hate them."
Coach Bernard Laporte, who is adept at using the media to unsettle opposition teams, stoked up the animosity between Europe's top two teams today when he said: "You like or you don't like the English. Most of the people hate them.
"Personally I don't have much love but one has to accept that they often are the best in sport or in business, so one has to respect them.
"England came to Australia as the world No1 and I still think they are but I hope that after Sunday's semi-final they will be downgraded to No2."
Laporte's half-joking remarks will ensure the build up to Sunday's battle is going to be lively.
But England head coach Clive Woodward dismissed the comments. "I respect Bernard and I don't take any of that seriously," he said. "It won't make any difference because we have a whole catalogue of quotes from French people regarding the English. You get used to it."
France and England met twice in World Cup warm up matches, in Marseilles and at Twickenham, and honours were even, with a home win each.
And Laporte insisted that, despite the criticism aimed at England's performances so far in the tournament, the French did not feel like favourites to win the match - and were not prepared to get involved with mind game duels.
"Although a lot of press are saying they're a fairly laborious side, nobody's yet defeated them. A lot of people know how Mike Tyson boxes but it doesn't mean to say they know how to beat him," he said.
"We are playing the team that is rated No1 in the world, and we have a lot of respect for them.
"We don't feel we are the favourites. We don't read so many newspapers and we don't read any English ones - they're too difficult for us to understand."
Meanwhile, Montferrand lock Thibault Privat is to fly out as a replacement for Olivier Brouzet, whose shoulder injury suffered in the win over Ireland has ruled him out of the rest of the World Cup.
