Oliver blasts 'arrogant' Twickenham crowd

New Zealand hooker Anton Oliver is likely to have few friends this weekend in a Twickenham crowd he has branded "arrogant".

Oliver - set to win his 50th cap for the All Blacks against England on Sunday - appears to have little regard for this country's rugby followers who, he believes, still regard Australia and New Zealand as a "large penal colony".

Read more:

Henry expects a tough test

"Twickenham is one of the ultimate arenas," he said. "It's the arrogance and hubris of the English crowd. After we beat them there last year, when you read the papers the next day you'd have thought that they had won the game."

Oliver traces the attitude back to England's imperial past - and it means he for one ought to have no trouble motivating himself.

"It's that kind of blind ignorance and arrogance that really gets up the noses of Australians and New Zealanders," he added in comments reported by the Guardian today.

"It's not the England players at all, who actually get quite embarrassed about it; it's the wider rugby folk and harks back to the old antipodean attitude with the colonials.

"We are all basically a large penal colony down here and we've got no right to assert any dominance in world rugby. I gave friends some tickets for Twickenham last year, and they were shocked at the level of opprobrium aimed at our players."