Les Bleus were largely impressive in their 18-9 win over Scotland although Lievremont was disappointed by the narrow margin of victory and he knows they will need to be far more clinical against Grand Slam champions Ireland.

The last Irish victory over France in Paris came in 2000 on St Patrick's Day with debutant Brian O'Driscoll scoring a hat-trick and the Irish captain is one of three survivors alongside Ronan O'Gara and prop Jon Hayes from that 27-25 win.

And despite averaging five tries per match in their last four home Six Nations matches against Irish, Lievremont says the visitors will be afforded maximum respect.

He said: "We know that with the left foot of (Rob) Kearney, (Ronan) O'Gara's vision in directing play and similarly (Brian) O'Driscoll's, not to mention their superb scrum, they will pose us many problems.

"I believe we were in their (the Scots') half for 60-65 per cent of the match, and had 55 per cent possession.

"We failed to kill the match. It is imperative that we do better, especially as Ireland have more weapons than the Scots."

Both sides make two changes. For France, wingers Vincent Clerc - who scored a hat-trick against Ireland in 2008 - and Alexis Palisson replace the injured duo of Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall.

Declan Kidney has also shuffled his pack after a less-than-convincing 27-11 defeat of Italy.

Lions tourists Keith Earls and Stephen Ferris coming in for Andrew Trimble and flanker Kevin McLaughlin on the wing and in the back-row respectively.

It is at the back of the scrum where one of the game's biggest confrontations is likely to take place between No.8s Jamie Heaslip and Imanol Harinordoquy - France's man of the match against Scotland.

The encounter has been given extra spice by both scrum-half Morgan Parra and lock Lionel Nallet questioning Irish tactics with bad blood from the Thierry Henry handball incident in the football World Cup play-off between the two countries seemingly spilling over into the 15-man game.

But there are far more than just bragging rights on offer - both teams are the bookmakers' favourites for the title - and a victory will set one of the teams on course for the Grand Slam.