Sean O'Brien has warned that Ireland must out-smart France if they are to come out on top of Sunday's Pool D decider at the Millennium Stadium.
Both teams sit on 14 points after three games at the World Cup and will be playing to avoid a quarter-final date with New Zealand and a six-day turnaround.
Joe Schmidt looks set to have a clean bill of health ahead of the game as Jared Payne and Rob Kearney returned to training yesterday, although it is yet to be seen whether the centre will take a full part in today's team run.
If fit, both are likely to come back into the team, with Dave Kearney and Simon Zebo in danger of missing out.
Certainly, O'Brien is preparing for a "dangerous" French team who he considers "different" to the one who have failed to beat Ireland in four games since they reached the final of the 2011 World Cup, citing their history of turning up on the biggest stage as a reason to be wary.
But he believes that the Six Nations champions can out-smart their opponents.
"Their history speaks for itself in World Cups," he said. "They're a very dangerous side, a very different team in World Cups and they've caused a lot of teams problems; this week is going to be no different.
"They'll want to cause us as many problems as possible, so it's about us being as best prepared as we can be and not giving them 'ins' like we did against the Italians.
"You have to be very smart against the French.
"You have to be very physical, you have to have a good-game plan and you have to keep playing for 80 minutes; not cough them up any stupid ball, that is when they are really dangerous.
"They love to get into a bit of a rhythm and a bit of a flow and get their off-load game going so you know we can't afford to cough up anything cheap and make mistakes."
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