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PARIS - France coach Bernard Laporte yesterday insisted he would never underestimate England despite the defending champions having been dismissed as too old to last in the tournament.
The English, who silenced their critics by knocking out Australia in the quarter-finals, will renew their longstanding rivalry with the French in the semifinals on Sunday (NZT) in what will be the 90th clash between the two nations.
"We know the English well," Laporte said.
"We never said they were a bad team, they were simply going through a difficult period.
"It will be a difficult match and we will have to prepare well. I have never known a World Cup semifinal to be easy."
France are aware that the English have two deadly weapons - their pack and the boot of Jonny Wilkinson.
The England first five-eighths has been a constant thorn in the side of the French.
He scored all of his team's points in the 24-7 semifinal win in Australia in 2003 and has amassed 130 points in his international career against his country's most implacable oppon-ents.
Wilkinson kicked all of the points in his team's 12-10 quarter-final win over Australia in Marseille.
"I watched their win over Australia and someone said to me: 'The English are going to win'," said Laporte.
"I was thinking the same thing because their pack was advancing.
"And then they had Wilkinson, who missed some kicks at goal but he allowed them to stay in their opponents' half."
Laporte believes his team, who lost their opening game to Argentina but have bounced back impressively, can go all the way to the final.
"The quarter-final is finished," he said.
"We haven't won the final and we want to be world champions."
Despite the unexpected defeats of Australia and New Zealand, Laporte does not believe that there is a power shift under way from the southern to the northern hemisphere teams.
"The south have dominated but Australia and New Zealand played some one-sided matches which were misleading," Laporte said of a first round which saw the All Blacks and Wallabies relatively untested.
AFP
