After conceding an incredible seven tries in the second half of their 59-16 defeat to Australia, Marc Lievremont’s men responded in style by racking up the biggest win of the opening round of the Six Nations against Scotland.

Ireland spent long periods defending their try line against Italy – which was eventually breached by full-back Luke McLean with five minutes remaining – and Kiss is under no illusions that they will have plenty more work on their plate this Sunday.

He said: “The French one is one of the toughies. You have to give them a fair bit of credit. They got smashed by seven or eight tries in the autumn (against Australia) and they have shifted their game a bit, got back to some of their values and they played very well.

“They can launch off some pretty good set-piece so it will be a good challenge.

“They (Italy) challenged us on the edges a few times and we managed to hold it. Even though we were down to 14 men you would expect to do better in that area.

“As a trend, probably a bit of an area we would like to improve, the edge defence. I don’t think there is anything critically wrong with it. It is just combination issues and reading things at the right time.”

The one ray of light for Ireland, who were lucky to escape with a 13-11 victory from the Stadio Flaminio, was that Scotland’s previously try-shy attack mustered three tries against France.

“I don’t think you can ignore [the tries they have conceded], added Kiss. “There are obviously some areas of concern for them in terms of their defence but you can’t say it defines them as a team on the down trend.

“In that game (Australia) they dominated the set-piece and got done by seven or eight tries to one, or whatever it was.

“It was something of an anomaly and what we are seeing from them last week (Scotland) is probably more true to form.”