Iain Henderson reckons the unity of the Ireland squad can nullify much of the France threat when the sides meet in the World Rugby U20 Championship final tomorrow.
Sebastien Calvet’s side have seen off all comers in the tournament so far, winning four from four.
England and New Zealand have come closest to France, both losing their games by 21 points.
Ireland, under head coach Richie Murphy, opened with a draw against England but battled through thanks to character-filled wins over Australia, Fiji and South Africa and are underdogs for the match-up at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town (6pm Irish time).
In addition, 11 of the French starting XV tomorrow played in the Top14, Champions and Challenge Cup last season.
Second row Posolo Tuilagi, for example, has played 16 times for Perpignan this season across the Challenge Cup and Top 14.
Of Ireland's starting team, only Sam Prendergast (two games), Conor O'Tighearnaigh (one game), both Leinster, and Munster's Ruadhan Quinn (three games) have played senior for their clubs.
But Henderson, who is currently in the Ireland squad preparing for three World Cup warm-up games next month, says the Six Nations champions, who beat a less experienced France side 33-31 in the spring, shouldn't be overawed.
Seven of the France team for Friday's game started in the Six Nations loss.
The 31-year-old Ulster lock, speaking at a Canterbury event to launch Ireland's Rugby World Cup jersey, recalled his time at that age grade.
He said: "My first year at 20s, drawing back on my experience, our backline was close to an entire Magners League backline.
"We had Kiernan Marmion, Jacko [Paddy Jackson], [Andrew] Conway, [Brendan] Macken, Craig Gilroy, we had an incredible backline and that team was much less successful than our team in the second year.
"In the second year we had very few so I think a lot of what 20s is down to is the cohesion that the team has, how well they work together.
"Yes, potentially for a one-out game there might be something that they find daunting about a player who has been playing really well for Lyon or another Top14 club but I think that can easily be overcome by a group of guys who are incredibly close like this Under-20s team, who have been working hard for each other.
"I don't think they should be worried in any way by players who have been playing professional rugby so far."
Murphy's squad have fought their way through to their first final since 2016 against the backdrop of tragedy with Greig Oliver, father of scrum-half Jack, and two pupils from St Michael's College, where six of the panel went to school, dying in separate incidents in the last two weeks.
Henderson added: "I actually had a text from Richie [on Tuesday].
"They've been going really well, fair play to them. It's been phenomenal what they are doing in an incredibly tough time for them and the resilience that squad has shown has been incredible and admirable.
"I really hope that they can get one more game under their belt and it will be a campaign that not many of them will forget for the rest of their lives."
Follow a live blog of Ireland v France on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app from 5.30pm on Friday
