Ireland boss Joe Schmidt has warned his players they will need to up their game if they want to overcome France in next Sunday’s Pool D decider.
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Schmidt’s side booked their place in the World Cup quarter-finals with a 16-9 win over Italy but a stodgy performance will have given the French encouragement ahead of the showdown in Cardiff.
The winners will finish top of the group and avoid the likely scenario of facing reigning champions New Zealand in the last eight.
“The French media have high expectations and so do the team,” Schmidt said. “It’s going to be incredibly hard for us to beat them. They are armed with more weaponry than what we saw today.
“It will be very difficult. We have to be more accurate than we were today. Physically they have players who are very, very powerful and that will make things difficult for us as well.
“I’ve watched their games and I’ll be doing a lot of analysis over the next 24 to 48 hours. We’ll come up with a plan and hopefully we can be more accurate in putting that in place than today.”
Ireland have enjoyed an excellent recent record against Les Bleus, winning two and drawing two of the last four meetings.
“It’s a timely reminder of where we need to be,” captain Paul O’Connell said. “France are an incredible side with incredible talent. They have size, physicality, skill and they play with a lot of passion as well.
“In recent years we’ve done well, we’ve had to produce massive performances to make those games tight. It’s a mountain of a challenge.”
