Now Lievremont’s men need big victories in their remaining two Championship games as well as a slip up from Martin Johnson’s England in order to win back-to-back titles for the first time since Bernard Laporte was at the helm.

There had been doubts over the fitness of Maxime Medard, who was a last-minute withdrawal at Twickenham with a calf strain, and François Trinh-Duc who hobbled off with a knee injury.

However both are named in their respective club squads for this weekend’s round of Top 14 matches and are expected to be fit to take on winless Italy.

And while Lievremont will have to wait until the end of the weekend’s matches to see if there are any new injuries, he indicated there would be several changes in the starting lineup for the Italy game.