Bernard Jackman expects France to select a very inexperienced side for the Six Nations opener and says he would be shocked if Ireland don't win Saturday's encounter.
France are currently on a seven-game winless streak and haven't finished inside the top-two in the Six Nations championship since 2011.
A dismal autumn series in which they failed to beat Japan at home prompted the federation to take the unprecedented step of sacking their coach Guy Noves.
Former Italian coach Jacques Brunel was hastily installed as his replacement on the same day shortly after Christmas.
Speaking on Game On on 2fm, Jackman, who coached in France for a number of years until leaving for Newport last summer, says that French players haven't enjoyed national team duty for a number of seasons.
"For the last four or five years, players haven't enjoyed going into the French camp. The atmosphere and the quality of coaching has been a step down from their club sides.
"The team I think they're going to pick this weekend is full of inexperience. A lack of leadership and a lack of world class players.
"I would say Guarido and Slimani as a scrummager are the only two in the team who could potentially play for other countries in the top six in the world. Someone like Picamoles has been left out of the side, probably for political reasons.
"There's no way in the world that Gourdan or Tauleigne, who will start at No. 8, are fit to lace his boots. It's just a sign of stubborness. Something's happened there. For him not to be in 23 is a travesty."
Observing the French backroom team, Jackman sees a coaching set-up in disarray following the departure of Noves last month.
Many of the more qualified coaches are happy to remain in the club scene and don't wish to be contaminated by interaction with the national side.
"I've been reading the French media this week and the players have said that having fun is going to be the core of everything they go and that the coaches broke them into small groups and they (the players) came up with the gameplan to beat Ireland.
"This is very different to the traditional French way of coaching. But I'd say it's probably more to do with Brunel not having a clear plan about how he can beat a Joe Schmidt led Ireland.
"For his other coaches, they went for Collazo, the La Rochelle coach, and he turned them down. Then they went for Galthie, who is the Toulon coach and he turned them down.
"Because the club game is seen as a better environment to be a coach than working for the federation.
"So, you're Jean Baptiste Elissalde, who played under Guy Noves, coached under Guy Noves, then coached under Ugo Mola who was sacked by Toulouse last year and he (Elissalde) hasn't found a job.
"The defence coach is a coaching co-ordinator from the federation. They're sharing a forwards coach with the U20s. The lineout coach is Julian Bonaire, who was a great player but is unproven as a coach.
"It's hard to see where the technicians are in that coaching set-up who can build a gameplan in two weeks, because that's all the time they've had."
Unsurprisingly, Jackman indicates that everything points to an Ireland victory.
"We should expect to win. The squad will speak about how they don't know what French team is going to turn up. But the reality is that we're a lot more comfortable in what we want to do.
"We've got great experience, we've got more depth than we've ever had. We've a settled side who are very well coached. I wouldn't see us having any fear going there. I'd be shocked if we didn't win.
