“I'd say I nurture a certain form of hatred towards them. (…) There’s a whole history between us, a true rivalry, which we like to keep up.” French prop Sylvain Marconnet’s words say it all about the special flavour surrounding each and every encounter between old foes France and England.

FRANCE'S RUN SO FAR Ireland - France: 30-21 France - Scotland: 22-13 France - Wales: 21-16

Yet, in sporting terms at least, this year’s “Crunch” hardly raises the level of expectation witnessed in previous editions – in the days when the Red Rose and “les Bleus” ruled supreme over rugby’s most venerable tournament. With England’s chances extinguished and France compelled to hope for good tidings from other pitches, today’s fixture is very much a mid-table clash.

After a faltering start to the tournament, France will be desperate to build on their morale-boosting win over Wales by trampling over the Red Rose at Twickenham.

Ever weary of his opponents’ “wounded pride”, French coach Marc Lièvrement has opted to beef up his squad’s pack. As a result, Sébastien Chabal will recover his original third-row position, making way for the experienced Jérome Thion.

Behind the scrum, France will stick with the duo of Morgan Parra and François Trinh-Duc, who took part in last year’s 24-13 defeat to England.

Trinh-Duc steps in for the injured Benoît Baby as fly-half, while Parra will be expected to repeat his commanding performance as scrum-half against Wales.

Over in the English camp, confidence could hardly be at a lower ebb. After successive defeats against Wales and Ireland, England have been ruled out from the race to the title. More worryingly still, the Red Rose has now lost five of its last seven matches under coach Martin Johnson. 

The former world cup-winning skipper knows addressing his side’s ghastly discipline record will be critical to any success. Ten yellow cards in four matches and cheap penalties aplenty go a long away towards explaining England’s poor run of results.

The home side can be expected to play to its strengths, dragging the opposition’s forwards into a war of attrition. To stifle the visitors’ trademark “flair”, Johnson will field a muscular pack – true to the old line: “No scrum, no win”.