Ireland must scale the ‘mountain of a challenge’ represented by France to top Pool D and avoid a likely World Cup quarter-final with champions New Zealand, said Irish captain Paul O’Connell.
The 35-year-old lock — who will end his Test career after the World Cup and move to France with three time European champions Toulon — said his overall record against the French was a poor one and the Irish will have to be at the top of their game to win in Cardiff on Sunday.
O’Connell warned his team after Ireland had eked out a gritty 16-9 victory over Italy.
The Irish held on despite being a man down for the final nine minutes with flanker Peter O’Mahony in the sin bin. Like the French they have three wins from three, with both on 14 points.
“To me they are an incredible side with incredible talent they have size and phsyicality and play with a lot of passion and enthusiasm,” said O’Connell.
“In recent years we have done well but the games have been very tight and we have had to really raise ourselves to another level for them, and we have managed two draws and won the last two.
“It is a mountain of a challenge.
“Still we were always hoping it was going to come down to this game to decide who tops top the table and it has,” added O’Connell.
O’Connell, who has made light of his age and the persistent injuries that blighted large parts of his career, said the Irish would suffer if they give up the ball as they much as they did against Italy.
“This is a timely reminder of where we need to be,” said O’Connell referring to the obligation to return to the form that has seen them win the past two Six Nations titles since Joe Schmidt became coach.
“If you turn over the ball to France with their players you are in trouble. We have been very good at our discipline and keeping the ball of late but we were lacking in both departments today.”
Schmidt said the French would bring a lot more artistry and invention to the encounter than the gutsy, rugged but limited Italians.
“The French have such high expectations both from their public and of themselves,” said Schmidt, who was an assistant coach at Top 14 side Clermont under present Scotland handler Vern Cotter.
“I think its going to be incredibly hard to beat them next week.
“They have a little more weaponry than we saw from the Italians today, so that will be hard to counter and physically they have some very powerful players so that will be really difficult for us.
“I haven’t watched their matches because I have been concentrating on each game at a time.
“I will be doing a lot of analysis of their games over the next 24 hours and putting what I discern from those into practice in training.”
Schmidt, who says he will have a selection headache as all 31 players in the squad are fit, said the fact his side had seen their games progressively get harder to climax with France was not necessarily an advantage.
“We are delighted that we are in the quarter-finals but building momentum is hard to measure week to week,” said the 50-year-old New Zealander.
“I don’t think we managed the end game really well against Italy and we got stilted in our delivery so that is not what we were looking for in terms of momentum.
“There is some advantage the way the draw has panned out but then it might be nicer to have a lighter week than going into the quarter-final with such a match (against France), the sort of game that puts your heart on a string.
“Then turn round six days later and play the number one team in the world (All Blacks) or gain an extra day and play a team in good form (Argentina), where you know you are going to be under a lot of pressure.”