Kidney takes aim at France's fortress

Declan Kidney has urged Ireland to end their long wait for success in Paris by rising to the most daunting challenge in the RBS 6 Nations.

The Grand Slam champions’ title defence will face its first major examination when they face tournament favourites France in today’s late kick-off.

It has been a decade since Ireland last triumphed in the French capital and Kidney, their head coach, admits their home record is to be respected.

“If you’re not excited about this one there’s no reason to be here,” said Kidney. “It’s probably the ultimate challenge in Six Nations rugby when you see France have lost just twice in their last 20 Six Nations matches at home.

“Not many sides are capable of achieving a home record like that. We’ll give it our best shot.”

On their previous two visits, Ireland were guilty of making suicidal starts that enabled France to establish half-time leads of 29-3 and 19-6.

Les Bleus were pegged back to 43-31 in 2006 and 26-21 in 2008 thanks to a pair of courageous fightbacks, but those defeats have highlighted to Brian O’Driscoll the need to avoid conceding early tries.

“I don’t think we feeling any trepidation from having lost so often in Paris,” he said.

“A great lesson was two years ago when we didn’t want the final whistle to go. We gave them a very large lead and managed to reel them in.

“Knowing what we’re capable of doing, you have to take the plusses from games even when you lose.

“We know we’re capable of scoring tries in Paris, it’s just a case of making sure we don’t concede four in the first half.

“We don’t have to accept that France are going to come out of the blocks, it’s about trying to get out of the blocks ourselves and take the game to them.”