England rugby hero Matt Dawson has sparked a war of words with Ellis Genge by telling the prop that his criticism of pundits is “utter nonsense”. It comes after Genge said those criticising Steve Borthwick’s side were “out of touch”.

The 30-year-old argued in February that the praise of England’s performances was never as loud as the criticism. His comments were made amid a national newspaper column in which 2003 World Cup winner Will Greenwood wrote that England “play no rugby” under Borthwick, despite their Calcutta Cup victory over Scotland.

Genge’s reaction prompted former England star Chris Ashton to admit on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast that he felt reluctant to be too critical of Borthwick’s players. Speaking on the same platform, Dawson did not agree and hit back at Genge.

“Just say exactly how you feel,” the former scrum-half told Ashton. “And saying exactly how you feel doesn’t mean you’re being critical.

“You are well within your rights from your international career to have... That would be my answer to Ellis Genge, by the way. Just because you’re playing the game now and someone’s a little bit older than you, doesn’t mean that they don’t understand the game. That is utter nonsense.

“I don’t care what he thinks. I genuinely don’t care what he thinks about what me or another pundit will say, whether he listens to us or not, that’s his decision. But you are well within your rights, you understand the game.”

Dawson went on to argue that former players-turned-pundits have a broader understanding of rugby due to the increased amount of analysis they conduct.

The 52-year-old, another member of the team which won the 2003 World Cup, added: “You see the game in, some would argue, a better way than a lot of these England players because you’ve got the visibility of what we have here and the analysis that we do, which is a lot broader and less biased than when you’re a player. Because as you say, we have that experience of being the player and being the pundit.

“He doesn’t have that experience. He has that experience of being a player and that is it. We know that when you’re in that bubble, you get sucked into the, ‘everybody’s on top of me and everyone’s having a go at us’. No, we’re not. Do you know what? Sometimes we’re not even just doing a job. We’re commenting on something that we can actually see.”

England go into their final Six Nations match against Wales with a slim chance of winning the tournament. France lead by a point and face Scotland on Super Saturday.