Six Nations: All eyes on France as World Cup year gets under way

However, somewhat akin to Ireland’s unbeaten November after the high of that series win in New Zealand, even attack coach Laurent Labit admitted that France had lost some of their spark, and that opposing teams had started to work them out a little.

Trips to both the Aviva Stadium and Twickenham would appear to make another Grand Chelem more difficult, and Galthié admitted: “These are two exceptional matches, in magnificent stadiums, against the best opponents in the world. Ireland are ahead of us and everyone knows the level and quality of this English team, especially when they play at Twickenham. We are going to experience these matches thinking first of all of preparing well. We live these meetings as pieces of life.

Les Bleus also arrive at the 2023 Six Nations with a fairly extensive injury list, including ten players who were capped last year, amid related concerns about their players’ heavy workload for club and country. Plus ça change.Much has been made, for example, about the 16 games Antoine Dupont has played this season as against nine by his Irish counterpart, Jamison Gibson-Park, although the latter was injured until the November internationals.

As has been the case for the last three years, Galthié initially named a 42-man squad for a week’s preparation, which took place in the south-west coastal town of Capbreton in the Landes, before releasing 14 players back to their clubs for a full programme of Top14 games. The 28-man squad departs for Rome on Monday for a week in the Eternal City. They will then spend a third week away when staying on in Rome before departing to Dublin.

They miss out to Melvyn Jaminet and Thomas Ramos, and it is Galthié's selection between those two at fullback which has replaced the Romain Ntamack-Mathieu Jalibert outhalf debate - Ntamack having seemingly seen off Jalibert’s challenge despite an injury-delayed start to the season and rusty November.

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