The New Arrogance

It used to be so easy to dislike the English rugby team. The memory of Martin Johnson's red-carpet strop in Landsdowne Road in 2003 (the year they won the Six Nations and the World Cup) summed up the attitude of that group of players: nobody likes us and we don't care. They were arrogant but they were very successful. In the years that followed they stayed ahead of the pack in the arrogance stakes, but their performances started to fall behind. As mouthy winners they earned a grudging respect, but as mouthy losers their limited appeal waned further. Annoyingly for those who love to hate them, Stuart Lancaster's England are a different proposition, hard to beat on the pitch and quietly respectful off it. But I'm starting to detect just a hint of English hubris in all this humility. Might it be a little immodest of them to be so proud of their lack of arrogance?