The French emerged as title favourites from a weekend of championship upsets following their 29-22 victory over Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

France will be expected to make it four wins out of four against Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday March 21 before facing England in what should still be the championship decider in Paris.

But Pelous knows England will still be a major threat to Frances title ambitions despite Sir Clive Woodwards men losing their proud unbeaten record against Ireland at Twickenham.

Our target was to win our first four games to keep ourselves in contention for when we played England, said Pelous following the hard-fought victory over the Welsh.

We are still on target and in some ways it does not matter about Englands result against Ireland. It will make little difference when we play them.

What the result showed is that rugby is a beautiful game. It proves that you can say anything and look at all the scenarios before a game, you just cannot tell what the result is going to be on the day.

Ireland put in all their effort against England. They played with talent, desire and a will to succeed and it got them the result.

But we have to put the result into perspective. If we forget about our victory over England in Marseille when it was not their first team then England have not lost for a very long time.

They are still a great side, they are still the best team in the world and it is going to be very difficult for us. We will have to be at our best.