Ronan O'Gara is the only survivor from the encounter at the Stade de France in 2000 when a fresh-faced Brian O'Driscoll's hat-trick stunned Les Bleus, but in the subsequent five clashes in Paris France have tended to be out of sight before half-time.

While Declan Kidney's men have struggled in the early stages of both of their games so far this Championship, it has been nothing compared to France's woes in the opening quarter.

Against Italy, the French found themselves on the back foot and drawing 3-3 midway through the first half, while Scotland roared into a 10-0 lead before being pegged back a week ago.

With Ireland coming into the game on the back of a comprehensive 42-10 win over the Azzurri, Saint-André has warned his team they cannot afford to play catch-up at the Stade de France.

"We have to start well against Ireland. It's what was lacking against Italy and Scotland," said Saint-André.

"We can't afford to wake up after 20 minutes. We need to be at our best from the start. The fans will be our 16th man and we are relying on them to be behind the team.

We know the Irish, they are well-structured and organised. They are used to playing together. That's why we didn't want to change too many things.

"They are very strong in the air, and very difficult to play against around the ruck and the breakdown. They really challenge for the ball so we'll have to fight for every centimetre and be clean with our ball presentation. You can tell they are used to playing together with most players coming from two provinces.

"We've got to put them under a lot of pressure and on to the back foot. At the World Cup they went forward on every impact. When they start going forward they are very dangerous, they showed that against Italy. After taking the lead they started playing their game. It will be a good battle."

Saint-André has made just two changes to his side, with Clément Poitrenaud in at full-back for the injured Maxime Médard and Julien Bonnaire coming into the back row for Louis Picamoles.

Kidney meanwhile, has stuck with the same side that saw off Italy in Dublin with Paul O'Connell against captaining the side.

The skipper has featured in each of Ireland's five defeats in Paris since 2002 and admits it's high time the Irish ended their barren run in the City of Lights.

He said: "We've given them soft tries in my time since I've been there.

"That's been the most common theme and you just can't do that in Paris.

"We've certainly played some good rugby there, but usually after we've left ourselves with too big a mountain to climb. Maybe we've tried a little bit too hard in the past.

"In the first half-hour against Italy last weekend it wasn't a great performance, but we were patient. Against France we must play in the right parts of the pitch.

"A big part of it for us will be eradicating those errors that can cost you momentum. You have to take you best game over there.

"If we play to our potential we can beat anyone, but reaching that level is the challenge."