The boomerang principle usually applies when it comes to psychological ploys before major Tests against Australia and England's head coach Clive Woodward duly felt the wrath of the southern hemisphere yesterday after his provocative call for stricter policing of illicit decoy runners at Twickenham this weekend.

The Wallabies' defensive coach John Muggleton and the All Black fly-half Andrew Mehrtens were both quick to respond, accusing Woodward of trying to mask his own team's defensive deficiencies, with Mehrtens, a second-half replacement in the All Blacks' 31-28 defeat, claiming England were "just embarrassed because we showed them up and should have won".

Speaking from the New Zealanders' base in Paris, an angry Mehrtens denied the All Black backs were guilty of anything. "We didn't use illegal runners. We didn't take people out. We're not cheating, we run legal lines.

"Woodward had a crack at me, saying I should do my talking on the field. That's rich coming from him. England get a decent win about every four years at Twickenham and they act like this every time. Although, having said that, I wouldn't call their last few wins over South Africa and Australia decent - we're at the end of our seasons and two years ago they needed a video referee to award the winning try over a 13-man Aussie team. Great win, that one. I can't believe that guy sometimes."

Muggleton, the man who has helped Australia establish their reputation as the world's best defensive side, also rejected Woodward's thesis that attacking players with no chance of receiving a pass deliberately blocked his defensive men. "Clive would whinge about that, because it's a weakness in their defence. In general terms I don't think they're good decision-makers.

"If you look at their defensive line, it is very jammed up with people standing close together so they don't have to make a decision. Phil Larder has drilled the system into them but we picked up after the first Lions Test last year that certain players weren't good decision-makers and were more comfortable in a small area. Watching them at the weekend, they didn't always make the right decisions and that created the overlap on the outside.

"What Clive's trying to do is take away any sort of move where his players have to make a decision, because otherwise their defence is so regimented they can't handle it. At the weekend there was no contact at all between New Zealand players and English defenders. To me that's not obstruction."

The Australians are also unconvinced about England's attacking convictions. "If you take decoy runners out you'll have games like the one we played here last year," Muggleton cautioned.

"We scored two tries, they scored none and all they wanted to do was kick. Last Saturday Wilkinson had a four-on-four with half the field open and dropped a field goal. That's not the rugby we want."

The Wallabies' head coach Eddie Jones, tongue embedded so deep in his cheek he risked serious injury, opted for sarcasm when asked if he felt England were simply concerned at their inability to match their rivals' artful running lines. "They're probably the best side in the world, mate, they know how to do everything," he said,

"We're probably seeing the referee [Paul Honiss] on Friday night but, unlike England, I won't have a video for him. Hopefully Paul will be above all that and will just referee the laws."

Jones, whose squad earned new friends yesterday by training with schoolchildren in Twickenham, also argued that the decoy issue is a minor one compared with the tackle area. "I saw most of the Test matches at the weekend and, to be quite honest, I was horrified. How many times did players just flop on the ball-carrier, making it a no-contest, and were allowed to play on?"

So it seems that, with two days until kick-off, referee Honiss is in danger of being swamped by the mountain of "helpful" advice coming his way.

The Wallabies, meanwhile have been reunited with their captain George Gregan, who declared he was feeling "pretty good" for someone who, since Saturday evening, has flown to Sydney and back and become a father for the second time. Australia are to confirm their starting line-up today.