Robinson in awe of French pack

IRELAND have been warned that life in the Six Nations is not about to get any easier after a clinical French team made a winning start to the defence of their title in Paris.

Having almost ground to a halt in Rome, Declan Kidney’s men are faced with the prospect of taking on not only the best counter-attacking team in Europe, according to Scotland coach Andy Robinson, but the most powerful scrum.

Perhaps encouraged by what they saw after watching the first half of Ireland’s opening fixture against Italy, the Six Nations champions opened their account after barely two minutes with a lightning-fast counter punch.