Ireland back row Paula Fitzpatrick has warned France will be a “different animal” to the Wales outfit her side dispatched in their Six Nations opener last weekend.
Defending champions Ireland were comfortable 21-3 winners at their new base in Donnybrook last week but travel to face Les Bleus tomorrow (Live, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 8pm) still awaiting a first win on French soil.
“Going into the Six Nations, you want to start building momentum straight from the start, so we were delighted to get the win,” Fitzpatrick told RTÉ Sport.
“Obviously, there’s a lot to work on but we were happy with the physicality that we brought to it.
“Moving from our fortress that was Ashbourne to Donnybrook, it was fantastic that all of the support followed, we had a nice big crowd.
“We know we have a huge job to do this weekend.
"Yeah, it was great for everybody to get that win under our belts and put in a real performance as well but France is going to be a whole different animal.
“They’re going to be really physical and difficult to beat, as we know because we’ve never beaten them away from home.
“It’s going to be a huge challenge. The last four or five results have been within a score between us. It’s been as close as you can get.
"Hopefully we’ll come out of it on the right side of this weekend.”
Fitzpatrick and her Irish team-mate Heather O’Brien have been playing in France for Toulouse this season, giving them a special insight into Saturday’s opponents.
“It’s been great to experience a different culture and a different style of rugby,” said Fitzpatrick.
“Four of our team-mates from Toulouse are on the French squad as well so we should be meeting them on Saturday, which should be fun.
“We’ve been playing against these players week in, week out in the Top 8 and we’re quite familiar with them.
“They have a passionate mindset about their rugby and they’re very confident as well. They’ll definitely be thinking they can do a job on us this weekend.”
The Dubliner is relishing the prospect of a large crowd at the Stade Aime Giral in Perpignan after France cruised to a 39-0 victory against the Italians last week.
“Down in the south, particularly, there’s huge rugby support,” she said. “They had 11,000 at the France-Italy game last weekend.
“It’ll be no different this weekend, Perpignan is a huge hub of rugby. The crowd will come out in numbers, they’ll be hostile and vocal.
“It should be a really big experience for us and something that a lot of the new girls won’t have experienced before.”
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