Les Bleus are the next obstacle between Wales and their first championship crown since 1994, with Mike Ruddocks men facing a daunting trip to Paris in little under two weeks time.

Wales have impressed during their two outings so far, edging past England 11-9 and destroying Italy 38-8 to keep them in what looks to be a three-way battle for championship glory.

France - one of the challenging trio along with Ireland - failed to convince in their opener against Scotland, but their fightback at Twickenham on Sunday underlined their title credentials.

One teams 100% record must go when the rivals clash at the Stade de France and Shanklin insists it will be the resurgent Welsh who finish the day with their championship dream intact.

He said: Its a huge game for us - every match is harder than the next one in this years Six Nations, but we have a break until we go to Paris so we can take a good look at them.

The way were playing and the confidence which is running through this team suggest we have a very good chance of beating them.

But we wont find the same gaps as we did against Italy. France are strong defensively and have highly-skilled players, so its going to be a big challenge for us.

Despite accounting for world champions England, Wales still required a convincing performance at the Stadio Flaminio to dispel notions of another false dawn in the Principality - and they delivered.

They dismantled misfiring Italy - who had pushed favourites Ireland so close the previous week - in convincing style, but Shanklin revealed his team are refusing to get carried away by their results so far.

It would be brilliant to win the Six Nations but we dont want to get ahead of ourselves. Its a real close championship this year, he said.

All the sides are very even - several teams have a chance of winning because they have risen to the same level. Ireland and ourselves have caught up with France and England.

Wales were expected to be subjected to a punishing afternoon by the feared Azzurri pack but they never competed on anything less than equal terms.

Shanklin said: What our pack has shown over the last two games is that we can compete with the best in the world.

If anything our forwards are more skilful than the other sides forwards and thats down to the excellent coaching we have.