Andy Farrell says it would be unrealistic to expect his side to pull off a perfect performance in the opening game of the Guinness Six Nations tomorrow night, but he's called for his side to be ruthless with their chances against Les Bleus.
The Grand Slam champions face a tough start in their title defence, looking for a first away win to France in six years, and all in the unfamiliar surroundings of the Orange Velodrome in Marseille.
Farrell and Fabien Galthie's sides have almost mirrored each other in recent years. France's Grand Slam in 2022 was matched by Ireland doing similar last year, and as the pair went into the World Cup ranked number one and two respectively, they both fell to agonising quarter-final defeats.
Their last two meetings have been wildly entertaining, an Irish comeback in Paris coming up short in Paris two years ago, before they played out an all-time classic at the Aviva Stadium 12 months ago.
Add in the novelty of a Friday night kickoff in an unfamiliar stadium, it has all the ingredients to be another blockbuster 80 minutes.
"I think it's great, we all want to see an open enough game," Farrell (below) said on Wednesday, ahead of his side's departure to Marseille.
"We know that pressure and territory is always part of that, but we know the type of game that France like to play on the break, they know the type of game we want to play. To marry that up with decent conditions is going to be good for the game you would hope."
There'll be no excuse for sloppiness with a warm day in Marseille forecast, leading into a perfect, dry night. It's a welcome change from the conditions the Irish players have been slogging through in December and January.
"You're trying to judge some of the games over Christmas and the weather's been so poor that it's been hard to judge really. That's no one's fault, but if we go back to the night games when we had plenty of them at the World Cup, it was a lot hotter than this.
"Temperatures drop at night as well, and the temperature we've been training in has been pretty good. We'll be ready for that."
There's a fair degree of change to both sides since the World Cup. From an Irish point of view Johnny Sexton has retired, with Jack Crowley the new starting out-half, while Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash are introduced for the first time in a Six Nations.
Similarly there's big change in France. Antoine Dupont's Sevens sabbatical means Maxime Lucu (below) is one of five changes to their side from their quarter-final exit.
And while there is some element of unknown around how France will bounce back from their World Cup exit, Farrell says the physical threat they pose remains as strong as ever.
"Like they test everyone; their set-piece has been good, the lineout especially. They've been ferocious on the ball because they've got good personnel on the floor as far as the breakdown's concerned.
"The talent that they've got, not just as a collective backline but individually in broken field play, it's hard to stop if they get over the gainline and start playing the game they want to.
"Defence is a nice form of attack, isn't it? To get the ball back.
"That's what it's about, we don't want to be defending for 30 phases and letting teams softly go down the touchline or over the gainline, it's something that, again, every team is trying to do but it's always something we're striving to get better at."
"To be more ruthless is what we're all [after], that's the gold standard, isn't it? The reality is that when you're playing against good sides like we are in France, it's not going to be perfect.
"It's how we deal with our disappointment, because our expectations are high, and just getting on with what's in front of our face and not compounding [errors].
"So, the way that we train and pressure we put on each other.
"There's plenty of imperfections, but how we work on our mentality to get to that next moment is getting better all the time.
"It's an emotional game, isn't it? You need to get to a point to physically play this game, to be in control of your thoughts when things aren't quite going your way. It's a skill that needs to be constantly honed in on.
"We're down that road, we've been down that road for quite some time but we're nowhere near where we need to be," he added.
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