Only England – who travel to Paris next weekend – now stand between Marc Lievremont’s men and a clean sweep, and on the evidence of this display few would back Martin Johnson’s men.

France were on the front foot from the word go and an early break from hooker William Servat almost resulted in the quickest try of the Championship but Italy repelled the French attack which eventually came to an end when fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc missed a drop goal attempt.

Italy, boosted by their victory over Scotland last time out, looked out of their depth and the first try of the afternoon arrived with just six minutes on the clock.

The outstanding Morgan Parra found a gap in the Azzurri defence and brilliantly offloaded to the on-rushing Imanol Harinordoguy and the No.8 showed great strength and poise to touch down under the posts – Parra comfortably adding the extras.

France were rampant at this point and a break by prop Thomas Domingo resulted in Italy conceding a penalty for obstruction, which Parra duly put away to put France 10-0 in front after just ten minutes.

Things then went from bad to worse for Nick Mallett’s Italy as centre Gonzalo Garcia was shown a yellow card for a blatant block on wing Marc Andreu.

And having dominated against 15 men, France had no problem cutting through 14 as Trinh-Duc released David Marty following a poor Italy lineout and the Perpignan outside centre galloped through a yawning gap to score, with Parra once again converting.

France’s third try arrived in the 25th minute and was a score of sheer brilliance. Full-back Clement Poitrenaud opted not to kick from deep inside his own half, instead breaking two tackles before offloading to Harinordoguy on half way.

The impressive No.8 then timed his pass to perfection as he found Marty who touched down in the corner for his second try of the afternoon. Parra failed with the conversion.

Still without a meaningful attack after half an hour Mallett opted to make a tactical change with Pablo Canavosio replacing Tito Tebaldi at scrum half.

The change had little effect on the overall shape of the game but Italy did get their first points on the board five minutes before half time from a Mirco Bergamasco penalty after France were penalised for illegal binding.

France, with one eye on England next week, took their foot off the gas after the break and the sides exchanged penalties at the start of the second half with Parra on target for the hosts before Bergamasco did likewise for Italy.

But the home side were soon in full flow again and the 78,000 Parisians inside the Stade de France enjoyed a moment to savour in the 51st minute as Andreu scored his first international try.

The diminutive Castres winger stepped on the gas to find a hole in the Italy defence after he was released by Trinh-Duc, Parra again on target with the conversion.

The lively Andreu then turned provider as France scored their fifth try of the match in the 56th minute when the 24-year-old showed the presence of mind to find Yannick Jauzion who rolled back the years to cross.

Parra added the extras once more before the scrum half set up France’s sixth try ten minutes later as his simple offload was picked up by replacement Alexandre Lapandry and the flanker charged through some poor Italian defending to score.

The conversion was duly added by Parra before Italy were finally given something to cheer.

Fly-half Craig Gower was at the heart of the move as he cleverly found flanker Paul Derbyshire who passed inside for replacement Carlo Antonio Del Fava to score Italy’s first try of the day – Bergamasco on target with the conversion.

Playing without fear Italy then grabbed their second try in the 72nd minute as Canavosio picked up the ball at the back of an Azzurri scrum before brilliantly darting away from the French defence to score beneath the posts.

Bergamasco converted to make it 46-20 and that was the way it stayed as France made it four wins on the bounce for the first time under Lievremont’s stewardship.