"They are clinical, fit, strong and well-versed as they showed in the match at the weekend," said Wall.

"We know they are a big force but we are the fighting Irish for a reason and we truly intend to bring that."

She added: "We had a positive session on Tuesday morning, we worked on our detail around the scrum and maul, we went at each other and there were some tired bodies but we really got into it.

"Aggression, contact and some stuff around set piece is what we are trying to nail down this week. We're very much looking forward to the France game, it is all guns blazing for us."

Ireland are aiming to bounce back from that bruising defeat in Cardiff and especially a dismal first-half display which saw them trail 26-0 at the break.

Ireland assistant coach John McKee says lessons have been learned and the focus now is on a France team that beat the Irish 40-5 last year and will start as firm favourites at Musgrave Park.

"There was a pretty blunt review and meetings, looking at some of the technical areas of the game we felt we let ourselves down," he said.

"The disappointing thing from a coaching perspective is we got beaten in some areas where we've done well before, and we got away from our process and the way we do things. We went too individual and couldn't counter the strength of the Welsh team.

"With defending the maul I'm sure France will look at last week and think they can come at us through the maul, but we've done well on that in the past, we didn't do well in that area on Saturday, and once again that's about getting really low in the fight, working together.

"Defending mauls isn't an individual battle, and we went a bit individual under pressure at the weekend. This week I think there will be much more ball movement in the game, more game time, and I think that will suit our players. It suits the smaller, faster players."

Home advantage

Ireland beat Italy at Musgrave Park last year and wing Aoife Doyle - a Munster team-mate of Wall - hopes the Cork crowd can be a key factor again.

"We have great memories in Musgrave Park, in the Six Nations last year and we, as two Munster heads, are coming off the back of an inter pro win there, so we have good memories.

"Having the home crowd and our family there will be great. We are relying a lot on the public support and we have quite a big support, they are quite positive and we are hoping that people get behind us this weekend.

"I think there is a lot more to come from the forwards and backs this weekend, that was not a true reflection of our squad at the weekend and we are hoping to right the wrongs on Saturday.

"We know what to expect, they have a massive kicking game but that is positive for us as it gives our backs the chance to counter-attack and have the ball in their hands. Their pace is in their back three [but] we are hoping to match that ourselves."