FRANCE are determined to learn from their mistakes of four years ago as they head into their series of warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup.

FRANCE team manager Jo Maso insists it was an “easy” decision to make Raphael Ibanez captain for the World Cup campaign.

France team manager Jo Maso insists it was an “easy” decision to make Raphael Ibanez captain for the forthcoming World Cup campaign.

France team manager Jo Maso wants his side to rediscover the flair and pride that was missing against England when they take on Scotland in the final round of the Six Nations Championship on Saturday.

France's rotation policy continues for this weekend's RBS 6 Nations clash against Wales - and team manager Jo Maso has vowed it will be in full force until the end of the tournament.

COACHES Bernard Laporte and Eddie O’Sullivan tried to distance September’s World Cup clash between the teams in Paris from yesterday’s game at Croke Park.

RAPHAEL IBANEZ believes France will be all the stronger come next year’s World Cup on home soil after winning the RBS Six Nations Championship despite never hitting top gear.

HAS THERE ever been a more amazing second half in the history of the International Championship?

France coach Bernard Laporte hopes the recall of veterans Raphael Ibanez and Olivier Magne will provide a much-needed boost in morale ahead of Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations Championship clash against Ireland in Paris.

SCOTLAND captain Jason White admits defeating France on Sunday would mean more to him than winning his 50th cap.

France have opted to keep faith with the majority of the squad that did so well during the second half of 2005 as they go in search of glory at the RBS 6 Nations.

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte admitted yesterday that he was puzzled by the clearing of Italy prop Salvatore Perugini of a dangerous tackle on Christophe Dominici during last weekend’s Six Nations match.

France team manager Jo Maso has given his full backing to Benoit Baby after the centre was cited by the independent match commissioner during Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations match with Ireland in Dublin.

HOOKER William Servat has been named in the France squad for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy in Rome.

France team manager Jo Maso knows Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations showdown with Ireland will not be the easygoing fixture it used to be in the days when Ireland were seen as one of the tournament’s makeweights.

France have recorded convincing victories in each of their last two meetings with Ireland but Les Bleus coach Bernard Laporte is not holding out hope for a repeat showing when they face Eddie O’Sullivan’s Grand Slam-chasing outfit in Dublin this weekend.

THE flair factor could prove the deciding factor in the clash of two unbeaten sides in Paris today as Six Nations Grand Slam holders France host a resurgent Welsh outfit.

FRANCE COACH Bernard Laporte has made four changes to the starting line-up from the one that beat England 18-17 for Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Wales in Paris.

France’s second-half revival to beat England on Sunday has not stopped coach Bernard Laporte making several changes.

France coach Bernard Laporte has made five changes in his squad ahead of their second RBS 6 Nations match against England at Twickenham on Sunday.

France 16 Scotland 9

Injuries to key players have forced France coach Bernard Laporte to reshuffle his 22-man squad for the first RBS 6 Nations match against Scotland on February 5.

France team manager Jo Maso believes Argentina have earned the right to face a full-strength France as he and coach Bernard Laporte announced an unchanged side for Saturday’s Test in Marseille.

A FIRED-UP Sir Clive Woodward has delivered a chilling warning to France ahead of Saturday’s 6 Nations showdown in Paris by declaring: “We want to win this match very badly.”

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte saw his side maintain the only unblemished RBS Six Nations record in Cardiff yesterday and claimed they can get better.

France coach Bernard Laporte saw his side maintain the only unblemished RBS 6 Nations record today – and claimed they can get better.

NAPOLEON had Talleyrand, Louis XIII had Cardinal Richelieu and France rugby coach Bernard Laporte has as his chief advisor and fixer, the flamboyant former international centre Jo Maso.

RENOWNED Bondi Beach, a few miles outside of Sydney, was the spectacular setting yesterday for the utterly predictable French selection to face Ireland in the quarter-final of the World Cup in Melbourne on Sunday.

Bernard Laporte reckons the winner of Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final between France and Ireland will be outsiders to win the Webb Ellis Cup – but he does not believe there is much in it.

FRENCH manager Jo Maso admitted last night that Sunday’s World Cup quarter final against Ireland is the game Les Bleus dare not lose.

France coach Bernard Laporte is delighted with the progress his team have made since the RBS Six Nations and believes they have shown glimpses of the form he wants as the quarter-finals approach.

France 41 United States 14

France have taken the unusual step of naming a player in their World Cup team who had not even arrived in Australia when the announcement was made.

French winger Xavier Garbajosa will fly home from the World Cup after failing to recover from a knee ligament injury.

WALLABIES wonderboy Stephen Larkham is about to jump on Jonny Wilkinson’s status as the world’s best fly-half.

NEWLY-RECALLED centre Tony Marsh will play in all four of France’s group matches in the World Cup, manager, Jo Maso, said here yesterday.

A wary France know they must give top priority to their first World Cup warm-up game against minnows Romania in Lens on Friday.

ITALY have threatened to withdraw from this year’s rugby World Cup on the basis that they are being unfairly treated.

France team manager Jo Maso believes his side can win the World Cup this autumn despite failing to retain their Grand Slam title.

FRANCE captain Fabien Galthie has been forced to pull out of the Six Nations clash with Ireland after dislocating a shoulder.

CLIVE WOODWARD last night vowed that there will be no repeat of England’s Paris ambush when his players are reunited with Six Nations champions France at Twickenham on Saturday.