Gaining revenge for their culinary faux-pas may therefore be the reason why the France scrum-half has made a point of sticking the knife in England year upon year since their World Cup success in 2003.

The 26-year-old has scored a total of 53 points in the last three meetings between the French and the world champions in the RBS 6 Nations Championship. Les Bleus have won all three of those games.

And after missing the opening three games in this season's tournament, he will hope to be England's tormentor-in-chief for a fourth successive year after being named in France's starting XV for Sunday's match at Twickenham.

His one-year spell across the water in the West Country - in the 2001-2002 season - certainly helped him gain an understanding of the English style of rugby, if not their methods in the kitchen.

'Yes, I did have to adapt,' he said. 'But I learnt a lot there. There was a good ambience at Gloucester.'

His stint only lasted one season, though, and he has since excelled at Biarritz, in which time he has gone a long way to making the France number-nine jersey his own. Until this year, that is.

Pierre Mignoni has started in the Six Nations wins against Italy, Ireland and Wales, keeping Yachvili relegated to the bench and all but securing his place in the France team for the World Cup later this year.

Yachvili, of Georgian descent, has now been given a chance to stake his claim and he has shrugged off any worries about his lack of freshness ahead of the game.

'It is true that I am lacking competition, but that has allowed me to work on things that I couldn't have during match weeks,' he said.

'It has also allowed me to recharge my batteries a bit because I have played a lot for Biarritz since the start of the season.

'I am well in my head, so I am not worried.'

But is he worried about Mignoni's emergence from the shadows?

'No, it's a good thing,' said Yachvili, who also has Jean-Baptiste Elissalde as a rival for the scrum-half berth.

'That motivates me even more, it gives me a desire to push myself to the limit and win back my place. There have been three of us for a long time.'