France coach Philippe Saint-André insists Les Bleus are not favourites for the next RBS 6 Nations despite completing a clean sweep during the autumn internationals.
Les Bleus saw off Australia and Argentina in style before battling past Samoa 22-14 in Paris this weekend.
Those results were enough to move France up to fourth in the world rankings, synonymous with a top seeding for the 2015 World Cup, and also making them the highest-ranked team heading into next season’s Championship.
But despite that, Saint-André is adamant that his side still have work to do.
He said: “We are not favourites. We don’t know what the level of fatigue of the players will be because they will keep playing games, they won’t stop. Secondly it’s a Six Nations where we go away three times and only play at home twice, so that’s never easy.
“Of course, we are happy, we have just won four matches in a row and we want to carry on. We’ll start with a tough game, away in Italy.
“These three wins don’t solve all the problems that exist in French rugby, with the calendar and the summer training. I’m grateful to the league and the clubs for allowing us to train with 33 players for the first week, and with 28 this week.
“It makes it a lot easier. Yannick Bru was able to work on challenging the opposition lineout and live scrummaging like you have in clubs.
“That won’t be the case during the Six Nations. The players will go back to their clubs. I hope they are at 120 per cent, but that they spend each morning, at least for a few minutes, thinking about the France team, that they do more in terms of preparation, lifestyle, recovery and technique.
“An international match is played with the ball in play for 40 minutes. They need to think about that.”
