France could not have asked for more as they sought to rebuild their battered confidence after the crushing World Cup defeat by England than to face two seriously weakened teams in the start to their Six Nations campaign.
Having disposed of Ireland -- who were missing six frontline players -- in a patchy performance last Saturday, they host Italy at the Stade de France this Saturday with virtually a fullstrength side while the visitors are without three of their most influential players.
France coach Bernard Laporte will be looking for his team to put on a more polished and consistent performance than in the 35-17 defeat of the Irish which left veteran winger Christophe Dominici distinctly unimpressed, especially by his own display.
"We weren't very good at putting into practice what we had talked about beforehand," said the 31-year-old two-time World Cup veteran.
"As for me I wasn't very good either in defense or in attack and I was not happy at all ... I will improve on Saturday."
Laporte has had to form yet another new halfback partnership because fly-half Frederick Michalak disclocated his shoulder in the Irish clash. He has drafted in Julien Peyrelongue for his first cap alongside Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who scored a try against Ireland.
However, 22-year-old Peyrelongue will not be there to kick at goal, though Laporte will be looking for him to produce a better display of positional kicking than Michalak did last Saturday -- a second successive poor performance following his dreadful one against England in the World Cup semifinal.
Peyrelongue admitted he had tried to improve his goalkicking for his club Biarritz but had given up the ghost and handed those duties back to scrum-half and French No. 2 Dimitri Yachvili.
"I can't take the pressure," he revealed.
The powerful Italian backrow will be sure to turn the screw on the inexperienced halfback partnership -- Elissalde's five other caps were as replacement -- as they seek to keep the scoreline respectable following their 50-9 humbling by England last Sunday in Rome.
However, injury having already deprived them of their hugely influential scrum-half and captain Alessandro Troncon and utility player Mauro Bergamasco, they lost fullback Andrea Masi this week with a hamstring injury.
Masi's injury leaves Italy struggling to fill that position as they had already lost World Cup first-choice Gonzalo Canale, also with a hamstring injury.
Italy coach John Kirwan may have to resort to playing Overmach Parma fly-half Roland de Marigny as a makeshift No 15.
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