The English have a gift for producing snarling pantomime villains. Born to rule god monsters who are wont to stand over you shouting ‘Welcome to the House of Pain!!’ after a scrum goes down.
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The Scots, French and Irish may want to beat England each year as much as Wales, but two factors make this the big one in the northern part of the globe.
First, Wales’ national identity is intrinsically linked to rugby – a game that unites a nation and cuts across class barriers in a way in never has in England means there is a particular edge to this match (often to Wales’ detriment).
Secondly, Wales’ superior record against England compared to the other northern hemispheres means this is no one-way rivalry. Welsh captain Phil Bennett once gave a team talk that went: “We’ve been exploited, raped, controlled and punished by the English – and that’s who you are playing this afternoon.”
In that light, here are the most disliked English rugby players in the history, in the opinion of Wales Online.
*Honourable mention* – John Inverdale:
Wales Online: “Ok, so he’s not a rugby player, but we simply couldn’t leave him out. You sense Wales could reach the World Cup final and Inverdale would still find a way to present it as the ‘appetiser’ ahead of the ‘main course’ that is England’s Bowls team v Canada. Biased to the point of hilarity, it’s clear the man just can’t help himself.”
#8. Matt Dawson
Wales Online: ” A player so unpopular, not even the English really liked him. A World Cup winners medal and Lions series victory earn him some respect, but we all know he’ll go down in history as the man who oversaw the demise of the institution that was A Question of Sport.”
#7. Dylan Hartley
Wales Online: “Another man Welsh fans have never warmed to, Hartley riled Warren Gatland in 2011 by giving evidence at a disciplinary hearing that resulted in Richie Rees being banned. Given the chance of a Lions reprieve but blew it.”
#6. Will Carling
Wales Online: “Poster boy and captain when the English team was at its most pompous and boring. Sadly this also coincided with us being at our most shambolic. Never shy of an opinion and another you can expect to be winding up the Welsh in due course.”
#5. Brian Moore
Wales Online: “Snarling, punchy and prone to reading extracts from Henry V in the dressing room, Moore represented everything Welsh fans loved to hate about that England team from the mid-90s.”
Embed from Getty Images#4. Wade Dooley
Wales Online: “The “Blackpool Tower”, as he liked to be known, really helped himself in the popularity stakes by breaking the cheekbone of Welsh forward Phil Davies during a game at the Arms Park in 1987″
Embed from Getty Images