Mick Cleary yearns for the days when the build-up to England v France was infused with real bite in The Daily Telegraph.
"His opposite number, Martin Johnson, shrugged off the usual anti-English, no-one-likes-us jibes. It was no more than bit of fun, a pantomime villain routine.
"What a far cry from the glory, gory days when Brian Moore’s every caustic word was pinned to the France dressing-room walls, guaranteed to enrage every Gallic hero of true blood.
"Little did they realise – or perhaps they did – that the more they reacted, the more it invited the next deliberately provocative statement from the England hooker."
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