Rory Best on alert as French pledge to bleed

Ireland captain Rory Best has warned his team to brace themselves for a massive defensive challenge when they face France in today’s RBS 6 Nations showdown in Paris (2.25pm Irish time).

France have come under fire in recent times for appearing to lose their hard-bitten edge up front, but Clermont lock Paul Jedrasiak pledged France will “bleed for the shirt” at the Stade de France.

“The spiked helmet is still in our blood,” said Jedrasiak, who takes a seat on France’s bench today.

“I hear a lot about the old and the new generation. They say it’s not the same now, but that’s wrong. We’re on the same track.

“We want to give everything, to bleed for the shirt.

“The Irish will not give us gifts. And I will give everything to defend my land.”

Ireland performed well without the ball against Wales but Best believes they will have to up that vigilance again today.

“There’s no doubt from a defensive point of view the French probably as much as anyone will test you defensively,” Best said.

“They have big forwards that can take you on around the fringes and up the middle and they have some electric backs with footwork and offloading ability that will really test you there.

“So it’s going to be a really good test for us defensively and we need to make sure we get a hold of the game defensively and if the game loosens up a bit, the way we look at it is that it’s just a bigger challenge for our defence.

“We know how to go about attacking, we have some really, really cool, calm and collected guys who run our plays and they know how we want to play so when the ball comes our way we’ll know when it’s on to play and when it’s on to find territory.

“Defensively we’re going to be tested, it’s a massive challenge and one that we will look to raise our game to.”

The hooker admitted Ireland had been caught cold at the scrum by the Welsh pack in an otherwise impressive first 30 minutes that saw the home side jump out into a 13-0 lead.

And the captain said another fast start today will be crucial to Ireland’s chances of success in Paris.

“I think when you come here it is important.

“We’ve probably both been involved in games where after 20 minutes, half an hour the game was dead and buried. We’re a different animal now than we were then, we’ve a lot more belief in our ability.

“It is important.

“When the French get their tails up and they start to go they are very very tough and they’re very hard to stop when they get momentum.”

New French coach Guy Noves is wary of Joe Schmidt’s “machine”.

“The Irish are the machine that always plays the same way, but with a passion and an incredible will. The individual duels will be of great importance.

“If defensively we are as lax as against Italy, we will be in big trouble.”