The reigning champions ran in nine tries in a record 52-3 win over Wales in their opening game and it turned into a tough night at the office for Carys Phillips’ side.
But Wyatt is backing his players to learn from their harsh lessons in Montpellier and bounce back in a revenge mission in Italy after the Azzurri picked up a 22-15 win at the Principality Stadium last year.
“It is important we lick our wounds and fight back. We will learn from what happened last weekend and it is important for us to focus on Italy this week,” said Wyatt.
“Italy will be a big challenge as well, as we found out last year. We aren’t a big side, and hopefully we can move them around, but we need to win more possession.
“It was always going to be tough in France because they were up against a real quality outfit. Their half-backs controlled things well for them and brought their runners into the game.
“Their offloading game was difficult to deal with. There were aspects where we needed to be on top of our game if we were going to be able to stay with them and make a better game of it.
“There are bits we are disappointed with, and we had an opportunity to get a try in the second half but instead they went 90 metres to score, but there were a lot of young girls out there who will have learned a lot from that and they will take some confidence into the game in Italy as a result.”
Wyatt wants his young side to move the ball away from the bigger forwards they will be coming up against in the championship and try to use their speed, agility and handling ability to create scoring opportunities. They carved out one great chance in Montpellier, but ended up watching an interdceptoin score at the other end.
The French are arguably the best team in the world at the moment having won the Six Nations title last year and beaten New Zealand in the autumn. Their heavyweight clash with England in Round 2 could well determine the destination of the title after the Red Roses launched their campaign with a 51-7 triumph in Ireland.
“The England and France games in this competition are huge. Then there are the rest of us fighting it out,” admitted Wyatt.
“The commitment the Welsh players showed was magnificent and Beth Lewis, Siwan Lillicrap, Lisa Neumann and Hanah Jones put in some huge hits. But it just showed the huge gulf in the level of rugby.
“France are one of the best teams in the world and are used to playing at that level. We have got a young squad and it was the first time lots of the players had played in an atmosphere like that and against a team of that stature.
“They won’t come up against a team like that week in, week out and, apart from England, they won’t meet a more physical side than that.
“We want to win every game, and we were disappointed with the final result, but the bigger picture is where we end up at the end of the Six Nations campaign.”
