Supporters of the Wales, Ireland and Scotland rugby sides have reacted after a newspaper columnist suggested they should support England the World Cup. Wales lost out to Argentina in the quarter finals on Saturday, whilst England overcame Fiji to book their spot in the last four.

Ireland and Scotland are also out, and there have now been the usual calls for England's rivals to back them in their semi final against South Africa. Wales fans, as well as their Scottish and Irish counterparts, are well known for adopting an 'anyone but England' approach during World Cup tournaments.

But Telegraph columnist Jim White said: "Here is a suggestion for readers in Cardiff, Dublin and Edinburgh long schooled in the belief that they should stick up for anyone but that lot: however tempting it might be. Don’t go out and buy a green shirt, change your name to De Kock and get yourself a Siya Kolisi tattoo."

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White continued: "Instead just think, for once, it might actually be a good thing if England come out on top. Here’s the thing: Saturday is not a Six Nations encounter, this is the World Cup.

"This will be a match with a different significance to the annual local spat. This is the competition which will decide where the epicentre of world rugby is located. And as such this might just be time to put aside the old divisions."

As expected there were plenty of Welsh people taking to social media to give their view. The Welsh Dragon said: "Do you think there's a journalist in New Zealand writing an article saying 'please support us Australia'? You're in the semi final of a World Cup, yet your focus is on whether other countries will support you."

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Harry said: "As an Englishman, if it it was one of them (Wales, Scotland or Ireland) in our position I'd be rooting for them to lose. I'd never expect them to support us."

Col Devchenko said: "When we dumped England out in 2015, I assume you wrote an article about why everyone should support Wales?"

But there were a couple of Wales fans who said they would be backing "the old enemy". John Evans said: "I'm Welsh but I want England to win as I think it'd be great for northern hemisphere rugby."

Paul Phillips agreed, saying: "I wouldn't usually support England but I'm not a massive fan of the Sprinboks' style of play and I feel that an England v New Zealand final would be a good match."