REUTERS

France's Dimitri Yachvili passes the ball from a scrum during their Six Nations match against Italy at the Stade de France.

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• France off to a winning start

Paris – France were happy to avenge last year's surprise defeat against Italy with a 30-12 home win against the Azzurri on Saturday, but they were aware they would have to do much better next week against Ireland.

Philippe Saint-Andre's side overcame a sluggish start in his first game in charge to prevail with tries by Aurelien Rougerie, Julien Malzieu, Vincent Clerc and Wesley Fofana, but the overall performance on their Six Nations bow was far from perfect.

“It's good to win but there is a lot of room for improvement,” Saint-Andre, who took over from Marc Lievremont last December, told a news conference.

“We will have to play at another level against Ireland next week.”

France defended well, but were dominated in possession by a sturdy Italy side.

“On the plus side, we scored four tries, we were disciplined and we did not a concede any try,” said Saint-Andre.

“On the negative side, we should gain more possession, we lacked aggression, especially at the beginning.”

The French scrum did well in patches against the highly-rated Italian pack.

“We were very, very good in the scrum at some moments. We won two of them when they had the put-in, but at some other moments, our scrum was slightly below average,” explained Saint-Andre.

Last year, France slumped to a 22-21 away defeat as Italy beat their neighbours for the first time in the Six Nations but a repeat never looked likely at the Stade de France.

“We did not panic,” said Saint-Andre when asked if he was concerned at halftime when France were only leading 15-6.

France captain Thierry Dusautoir echoed his coach's view about next weekend.

“We are happy we took our revenge, but we will have to be much better next week,” he said.

Italy captain Sergio Parisse admitted it was mission impossible for his team.

“We did not have a lot of time to prepare and we were facing the World Cup runners up at home. It was almost impossible,” the number eight said.

“We dominated possession but we failed to score a try. France did the exact opposite.”

Italy's French coach Jacques Brunel, who was also making his debut on Saturday, was happy with his team's spirit.

“We are trying to infuse the team with a new spirit,” he said.

“We are on the right track, but we have to be realistic, we need to make progress. Dominating is not winning.” – Reuters