Now Wales skipper Ryan Jones and co aim to let out their fury by silencing Les Bleus and raising the roof in a must-win clash in Cardiff.
Wales forwards coach Robin McBryde said: “The communication has been good all week but Wednesday night’s training session was one of the loudest I’ve ever been part of.
“The volume was high and the players didn’t mind being vocal and critical of each other
“A couple of balls went down and the likes of Ryan, Martyn Williams and Stephen weren’t waiting for the coaches to say something.
“The youngsters have also been demanding higher standards so it’s been good to see it happen across the board.
“The players realise it is up to them as it will be out on the field on Friday. Everyone is aware there is another level in us which we have yet to reach in this campaign.
“But the players have taken the criticism on board and reacted in a positive manner.”
Wales need to deliver a fast start after playing catch-up rugby to Australia last autumn as well as England and Scotland this month.
McBryde added: “There aren’t many better teams than France once they get their tails up. If they get into the lead, get their noses in front and find weaknesses from us early on, then they get into their offloading game and you start hearing ‘Allez Les Bleus’ in the crowd.
“They are a confidence team so hopefully we can start strongly and put doubts in their minds. We have spoken about being accurate to give ourselves a chance and
we know we have to dominate the collisions. We didn’t do that against Scotland and defence coach Shaun Edwards has been on about that all week.”
