Laporte revealed the 21-year-old Toulouse player withdrew early from the 31-0 defeat of Scotland in Edinburgh merely as a precaution after taking a bang on the neck.

With or without their influential fly half, France will start strong favourites to complete a Grand Slam in Paris even if Laporte is playing down the prospect.

England are the best side in the world, he said. That factor alone explains how difficult it will be for us next week.

I was very happy with our performance against Scotland. We did the simple things well and we have continued to improve throughout the championship - but facing England is a different matter entirely.

They beat us quite comprehensively in the semi-final at the World Cup, but that will not be on the players minds this time.

The weather was against us that day, and we didnt adapt to the conditions.

I prefer to think about the five games we played before that - particularly the wins against Scotland and Ireland where we were very good - and the victories in this competition.

We know it will be hard for us, but the challenge is one we are looking forward to.