The Guardian used to have a poster called Frederick Chichester

He was outrageously provocative, as politically incorrect as they come, a troll par excellence... but crucially, funny. Very funny in fact.

In the run-up to Wales v England 2009, he wrote the following - but bar the identities of most of the players, a lot of it applies almost as much to tonight's game I'd say. Many may find the following comments offensive - but this is the Six Nations. Nation shall speak bile unto nation. :)

"The stench of hubris wafting over Offas dyke has reached such a level that even the mildest of Englishmen would feel the fire of insolence rising in his breast. Mike Tindall, Joe Worsley and Phil Vickery are not the mildest of Englishmen. They are warriors. They are indomitable beasts of the game. They have won World Cups. They have won European Cups. They have won Grand Slams. They will not be happy that clodhoppers like Tom Shanklin and Adam Jones and Ian Gough are being hyped as if they were the most dazzling players in the history of rugby.

The Welsh are often poorly educated, so it is unlikely they know their classics, but permit me to inform them that hubris begets nemesis. To claim, as Warren Gatland claimed, that England are as boring as Leicester is to fall prey to hubris. To suggest, as Mike Phillips suggested, that England would only be tough for 20 minutes is to fall prey to hubris. To scarcely suppress ones scorn for ones ancient betters is to fall prey to hubris. One awaits only the maladroit intervention of John ONeill for this hubris to reach its apogee. Hubris begets nemesis, and nemesis is travelling west in the form of 15 proud English yeomen. This band of brothers, these solid sons of the shires, do not take kindly to scorn and ridicule, least of all from their natural inferiors of 1000 years, the Welsh.

We know what will happen on Saturday because we have seen this story before. We have seen it on the rugby field in Marseille, and we have seen it on the streets of London in the Blitz. We have seen it on the beaches at Dunkirk, and in the trenches at Passchendaele. We have seen it on the high veldt at Mafeking, and in the fields at Waterloo. We have seen it on the steep cliffs of Quebec, and in those misty days of yoreat Agincourt.

The Englishman, when his phlegm is high and his spirit roused, is the most fearsome prospect on earth. A lion, a tiger, even a bear, would quiver before an Englishman in full cry. I say to you all in seriousness that over 1500 years of English stubbornness will crash down upon the unsuspecting heads of Warren Gatland and his chums on Saturday. We will witness the beasting to end all beastings, a scattering of the Welsh to rank even with the 13th century schooling handed out by Edward Scissor Hands. I am as confident of this as I have ever been confident of anything in my life. When Jonno rouses the troops on Saturday, he need only say: For God, for The Queen, for England, and for St George. The chaps, their nostrils flaring and their gander soaring, will do the rest".

Posted By: thebigfeller, Feb 6, 22:09:39