Australia v England Countdown:The history of Anglo-Australian sport is full of verbal jousts, sarcastic put-downs and calculated wind-ups and the spirit of Captain Cook, Douglas Jardine, Rod Marsh, Eddie Jones and David Campese is very much alive in the south of France. Days before the two countries collide in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final, and Pom-bashing is reaching unsustainable levels.

Even some senior members of the Wallaby camp have been less than impressed at the latest contribution from John O'Neill, the chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union, who has renewed his foam-flecked attack on all things English.

It is O'Neill's view that his compatriots "all hate England" when it comes to sport and that he is simply "stating the bleeding obvious" by saying so.

"Sadly this is all a by-product of their born-to-rule mentality," he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. "It's been there for a long time now and nothing has changed."

Campese has been in familiar rant-mode - "It would be the worst thing for rugby if the Wallabies don't beat England next week" - and the former Australian coach Jones, now with South Africa, has also backed his old mates.

"Australia has been one of the most impressive teams in the preliminary rounds," he said yesterday. "England have improved near the end of the pool rounds but have struggled to find cohesion or form. Australia are pretty warm favourites. They will win and win well."

The Wallaby wing Lote Tuqiri, meanwhile, has lobbed in his 10 cents-worth by suggesting Jason Robinson was the only English threequarter capable of worrying Australia.

"He is probably their main attacking weapon and probably the only world-class back they have playing in form at the moment," he said, before helpfully adding: "There's your ammo, boys . . ."

Short of Austin Healey dressing up in a wombat costume and riding a unicycle into the Wallaby team hotel it could scarcely get any sillier.

The Australian coaching panel, even so, recognise that sledging this particular opponent - in French the verb is chambrer - is not necessarily the brightest move. Significantly, the Wallaby forwards coach Michael Foley, once of Bath, was one of those to distance himself from O'Neill's remarks last night.

"I'm not sure how many people John's speaking for. I enjoyed my time living in England and there are some friends of mine in the opposition . . . I'm not quite sure what he's talking about."

England's players, for their part, are steadfastly refusing to get involved, not least those who were around in 2003 when one local newspaper printed a cut-out-and-keep Jonny Wilkinson voodoo doll and invited readers to honk their car horns outside England's team hotel in Manly the night before the Sydney final.

"It's four years on and most of the team has changed. It means nothing now, we need to move on and think about the future," said the lock Ben Kay yesterday. "We've known for ages we're 'boring' so we're quite happy.

"When I first started playing against them (Australia) it would have perhaps got under my skin but I've got a lot of Australian mates and they're all like that. I don't think the players will be too upset about anything that's come out of the Australian camp - I think it's quite funny really."

Of more relevance is the make-up of the starting XV, which England have deferred announcing until tomorrow. Jason Robinson was fit to train yesterday and should start and England could do worse than opt for a target man capable of keeping the Australian midfield honest. In that event, Leicester's Danny Hipkiss could get the nod opposite the strapping figure of Stirling Mortlock.

What to do at inside centre is another conundrum, with Olly Barkley not enjoying the greatest of games against Tonga.

England will want to get at young Berrick Barnes and it could just be that Andy Farrell's extra physicality and big-game temperament will be called upon.

Maybe, too, this is the moment to shift the admirable Martin Corry into the second row and play both Lewis Moody, who missed training as a precaution yesterday, and Tom Rees to inject some extra pace into the back row.

In that way England would still have plenty of lineout expertise at their disposal and anything they can do to make the Wallabies think twice and unsettle young Barnes is worth a try.