Donal Spring Rugby Analyst: We are all looking forward to tomorrow morning's game with a great degree of excitement and no small degree of expectation.

The performance against Australia was heart-warming, even if there were quite a number of handling and decision-making errors.

It appears that the Australian press have been very critical of their own side, but they seem to forget that you are really only as good as you are allowed to be.

France have looked very impressive in their matches to date, but I would question the quality of the opposition which they have played.

There is one thing, however, for sure, and that is the quality of their back row, Olivier Magne, Serge Betsen and Imanol Harinordoquy. They are without doubt one of the best back rows in the world at the moment, particularly as an attacking unit.

Although I have always been a huge fan of Anthony Foley's, I believe the correct back row has been selected for this game. Keith Gleeson and Simon Easterby were, I believe, automatic selections, and it came down to a straight decision between Victor Costello and Foley, with the former getting the nod for his greater ball-carrying ability.

Foley's effectiveness has been hampered by recent injuries and his lack of match practice. Still, it must have been a difficult choice for the selectors.

Clearly, the loss of Denis Hickie is significant, but on the other hand John Kelly has an excellent track record and we are fortunate to have somebody like that to step into the gap. I do not think for one minute that he will let the side down.

The French always had a great problem with their discipline and have had to work very hard on that, but they seem to have got it under control at last. Their pack is a far more disciplined and organised unit than it has been for a number of years.

I still believe we have the better lineout by some distance, and we will be able to put pressure on them on their throws. If we manage to upset the French lineout it will have a huge bearing on the game, because more than any side they tend to use their lineout as the springboard for a lot of their plays.

They will probably try to attack us in the scrum, but I do not see us conceding anything in this area.

We then come to the back lines, and I am very glad that Ronan O'Gara has been selected again. It would have been unfortunate if he had lost his place because of the missed kicks last week.

In fact, the chopping and changing of number 10 does not help either player, and I would like to see O'Gara get a long run as first choice in that position to build up his confidence.

The French are undoubtedly great attackers but they are not as strong physically as the English, Australian or New Zealand backs, and therein may lie the key to Ireland's success.

We should be prepared to run at the French backs and engage them physically, which will present them with difficulty and also tie up their back row in a defensive role to a greater extent than if we decide to kick the ball away.

When we beat France 15-12 in Dublin in the Six Nations they played appallingly. It was probably the worst French performance I have seen for many, many years.

Fortunately, we managed to play just that little bit better, but I recall that we kicked an awful lot of ball away on that occasion, and in particular from Brian O'Driscoll.

It seemed to me that we were afraid to attack the French backs lest they might counterattack from broken play.

If we kick the ball away against them tomorrow we will undoubtedly lose the match.

However, if we run at them I believe we will win. It has been one of the great lessons of this tournament that you must attack the opposition with the ball and in the tackle. Anybody who stands back and lets the opposition run at them gets hammered.

The Samoans proved this against the English, the Welsh proved it against New Zealand and we did so against Australia.

Hopefully, the long-term result of this will be a narrowing of the gap between teams, but tomorrow morning will tell us a lot. A friend mentioned to me after last week's game that Irish teams seldom get the whole lot right: sometimes we get the mental attitude right and the skills let us down, on other occasions the skills are up to standard but we seem to lack the fire.

The ideal approach for playing a game of rugby is one of "controlled madness". That is what we need tomorrow.

We were high on the madness part on Saturday last but we lacked the control.

If we get it right tomorrow we have the players to do the business.

I think it is going to be very close, but I have a feeling we will win this one.