“I guess it’s psychology, trying to have it your way. If I see I’ve got up my opponent’s nose I will be over the moon. Job done.”

But Langer had reacted by saying: “In general you want to be careful. If we start they are going to retaliate and I don’t think that’s the way we want to go.

“The rules are very strict and don’t allow you to rattle change in your pocket or move around or stand on somebody’s line, but I don’t want us to play even on the very edge of the rules.

“I want us to be gentlemen and let our clubs do the talking.”

Asked if he would speak to Poulter, Langer replied: “Not just him, everybody - play fair and beat them with our strengths, not with other stuff.”

Last night Poulter commented: “I don’t think any gamesmanship is going to come into it – even though I did say it last time.

“We’re going to do this professionally. We’re going to let our clubs do the talking and concentrate on the job at hand.

“As long as we stay focused 100 per cent, then hopefully we will come out on top.”

The 1999 match in Boston was accompanied by accusations from both captains - by Mark James about the home team inciting the crowd and by Ben Crenshaw about deliberate slow play.

Phil Mickelson even teed off on one hole of a fourball game before opponents Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke were there, but the suggestion by Crenshaw that it was pre-meditated was laughed off.

The biggest feud the event has seen was between Seve Ballesteros and Paul Azinger. They fell out at The Belfry in 1989 and two years later Azinger labelled the Spaniard “the king of gamesmanship” when they clashed again at Kiawah Island.

Azinger later wrote in his autobiography: “Throughout our matches Seve continued to pull little stunts that helped me better understand why, prior to the 1989 Ryder Cup, Curtis Strange had warned me not to let him pull anything on me.

“Seve seemed to come down with a severe case of sporadic throat clearing. It usually struck just as a player was approaching his ball. Seve later blamed the problem on allergies to sand and dust.”

One American journalist wrote that if Europe had won (they didn’t when Langer missed a six-foot putt) “they can just fill the cup with cough syrup and give it to Seve”.

It was Azinger and partner Chip Beck, however, who were guilty of using two different types of ball during the opening foursomes and Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal were perfectly within their rights to raise the matter.

Azinger said: “I can tell you we’re not trying to cheat.” Ballesteros responded: “Oh no. Breaking the rules and cheating are two different things.”

Ballesteros later called the American team “11 nice guys and Paul Azinger”, while the “War on the Shore” atmosphere at the match was not helped by a local disc jockey starting a “Wake Up The Enemy” campaign, giving out numbers of hotel rooms and encouraging listeners to ring in the early hours.

European players were also upset by American captain Dave Stockton appearing to gloat in his welcome speech over the amount of money his side had earned and with some of their players wearing Desert Storm caps Azinger commented at the end: “The country’s pride is back. We went over and thumped the Iraqis and now we’ve won this.”

Poulter experienced Ballesteros’ cough for himself at the Seve Trophy last year.

“Initially, it came when I wasn’t expecting it, but then I was expecting it all the time,” he said.

“And if you went to weigh up a putt he would be standing on your line beyond the flag.

“He was always in your face. Along with being able to get up and down from everywhere, it’s what made him the great player he was.”