The Ireland backs that line out in Cork on Saturday will have an average of less than five caps each but Greg McWilliams insists he has no worries about the disparity with an experienced French backline.
Les Bleues hand a debut to full-back Morgan Bourgeois and out-half Carla Arbez made her debut in last weekend's win over Italy but the rest of the backline have a total of 196 caps.
Ireland are operating without their sevens players and have lost Enya Breen to injury but, starting into a first campaign under professional contracts, the head coach says he is not concerned that his backs' caps total is 32, with wing Aoife Doyle accounting for 13 of those.
"No, I mean that now," he told reporters as Ireland bid to recover from a sobering 31-5 loss to Wales in round one.
"These are the right players right now. They’re available, they’re ready to go, they’re talented, they’re hard-working.
"You’ve got a group of young Irish women who have been brave this week in terms of looking inside themselves as individuals and as a group.
"And to see their response, these are the right people and it's not just the 23, it’s the 26/32, it’s the other players on the periphery.
"If you’re in amongst it and you’re seeing their ability to come together and get tight. It was a harsh lesson last week.
"It was a difficult time but their response is what you want to see from a group of Irish women who’re ready to go out and represent their country.
"They understand, they own their performance. They were honest they worked hard this week, they understand what's needed to be done and they’ve gone about it and you’re just looking forward to seeing the response this week.
"There’s lots of great support out there and you’re just hoping that they can see a team that are going out and fighting. I think if you have that, you’ve always got a chance."
France, now under joint head coaches Gaelle Mignot and David Ortiz, have been professional for a number of years and were narrowly defeated in the World Cup semi-final last year by eventual winners New Zealand.
Ireland not in damage limitation mode, says @HannahOConnor22 ahead of #IREvFRA #RTERugby #TikTokW6N pic.twitter.com/L4Dy438ibG
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 30, 2023
Prior to the game against Wales, McWilliams said he would know more about how the new professional set-up in Ireland would impact the tournament and the question arose again in his pre-match press conference.
"The game is growing massively," he replied. "It is a phenomenal spectacle and our job is to get to the top table and work hard.
"We can’t look back at what happened previously. It is so irrelevant. We need to focus on today and tomorrow and drive forward.
"The development since I have started is massive and you have to have a very clear plan, be consistent, have end goals and markers and check and challenge yourself as a staff and player group.
"It’s gone very physical and very fast and playing that game last week we hope will stand to our players because they weren’t expecting it.
"Understandably with an inexperienced group, you get shell-shocked and now they have experienced it, it is how we learn from it and ensure we are better for this challenge."
Ireland conceded 26 points in the opening half last weekend and McWilliams acknowledged that it was power more than fitness that was their undoing.
"Every session that we have and have done since November 1 when we went professional is GPS -tracked and everything we do is to build players for a worst-case scenario, ball-in-play, to be able to cope in high pressure," said the former head coach of Rugby United New York.
"If you look at the end of the Wales game, it wasn't the fitness that in my opinion was the issue.
"It’s our ability to cope with the physicality and there’s ways that we can do that. We can get lower, we can bring more energy, we can work in greater numbers to counteract physicality.
"It’s not just about size, it's our ability to learn from experiencing a level of physicality that players wouldn’t have, it was nowhere near the level of physicality that we had in Japan.
"It was like a total new world to some of them. It wasn’t the physicality of AIL, of Interpro, of Celtic Challenge.
"And it was a shock to the players but as I said to you the response has been great.
"We’ve worked hard to be strategically smart to make sure that we’re able to cope against that physical power and that’s what we’re hoping to see on Saturday. We’re really looking forward to seeing that."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch Leinster v Ulster in the Heineken Champions Cup on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, and also watch Scotland v Wales in the TikTok Women's Six Nations (Saturday, 5.30pm) on the RTÉ Player.
Listen to live commentary of Ireland v France (3.15pm) and Leinster v Ulster (5.30pm) on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
And follow all of this weekend's Women's Six Nations and Champions Cup games on our live blogs on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app.
