But Sir Clive Woodward's players are determined to rise to the occasion, and end a largely disappointing campaign on a high.

England can still retain their championship crown, but it will take some doing.

Not only must they stop the Grand Slam-chasing French, but also face the prospect of winning by at least seven points, something they have not managed in Paris for 12 years.

Form and momentum suggests that France will complete a clean sweep, secure the title and avenge their World Cup semi-final defeat against England last November.

England will need to produce comfortably their best performance of the tournament in front of a sell-out 80,000 crowd at Stade de France, but head coach Woodward is relishing the prospect.

These are two world-class sides, and there is a big match-up here, he said.

France have got a little bit more momentum, they've got slight advantage, and when you have got that winning momentum, it is hard to stop. It's up to us to try and get the momentum back.

All we want to do is win the game - it is irrelevant that France are going for the Grand Slam. This is always the big game of the Six Nations, and it will just be a big night.

We won here in 2000, and England are pretty good at winning away from home. It is an awesome place to play, one of the best stadiums in the world.

England, after losing their World Cup skipper Martin Johnson to international retirement and seeing their World Cup final match-winner Jonny Wilkinson sit out the tournament through injury, are yet to hit the heights in this season's RBS 6 Nations.

Much of their play has been disjointed, and they produced a poor display against Ireland three weeks ago when Brian O'Driscoll's team became the first side to triumph at Twickenham since 1999.

There were signs of an improvement against Wales last weekend, but England will need to move up at least another two gears if most pre-match predictions of a French victory are not to materialise.

We had a bad day against Ireland, but it doesn't matter what other people say, added Woodward. You have just got to concentrate on your own ability to coach and manage the team, and we would rather do our talking after the game.