‘We felt we were taking physical and mental control’ – Guy Noves

Guy Noves was pleased with his team's 10-9 victory over Ireland, except for a "distasteful" first half.

The France coach revealed he had to let off a verbal volley during the half-time break at Stade de France, this afternoon.   Noves feels his team have the necessary spirit and desire to challenge for Six Nations honours but warned that his side are far from the finished article. The former Toulouse coach received praise from the French press pack for bringing on props Eddy Ben Arous and Rabah Slimani four minutes into the second half. As statements of intent go, this takes some beating. However, Noves responded:

"I don't want to hear about me changing the strategy being the right one. This win was down to the whole staff... When you lose, they say you played the right strategy. When you lose, it was the wrong one. "A lot of credit must go to our players for making the call to go for touch at 9-3. They felt they were taking mental and physical control of the Irish players... I think the players won and not the coaching. "The scrum was key for us as we had four tries in a row. We were expecting a yellow card."

Noves joked that his close-knit, young team are already in danger of losing their hair as they are such hard workers. When the post-match briefing wrapping up, Noves took the microphone and congratulated Ireland on a match hard contested. "Everyone talks about how we beat them," he said, "but they are tough. They gave us so many problems and I would like to thank them for a good fight."