After spending the tournament rediscovering their own values, France are now keen to take on Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff with the Six Nations title on the line.

Last year's champions, who have experimented with a number of new players and focused on running the ball since the start of the tournament, were far from perfect in a 25-13 win over Italy in Paris on Sunday but can still retain their crown.

A victory by a wide margin in Cardiff on Saturday will see the title return to France as well as ruin Wales's grand slam aspirations.

France will retain their crown if they beat Wales by either more than 19 points or by that margin but with more tries than their opponents for the tournament.

Both sides are tied on 11 tries apiece.

"It will be a final," hooker Dimitri Szarzewski told reporters.

"Everything is possible. It will be very intense. Wales are full of confidence and will have the crowd on their side in that beautiful stadium. It will be deafening out there.

"Win by 20 points, why not?. But we must concentrate on winning, not on the margin we need to do it by."

France were criticised for relying on defensive tactics rather than on their trademark flair in the Bernard Laporte era which ended with a World Cup semi-final defeat by England last year.

Marc Lievremont, who took over coaching duties from Laporte in the wake of the World Cup exit, has decided France needed to be their unpredictable selves again rather than the powerful-but-dull machine Laporte had assembled.

Lievremont has fielded several new caps since the start of the tournament, with scrumhalf Morgan Parra and wing Julien Malzieu proving to be exciting prospects.

Those youngsters were asked to play their own game and obliged, even if France relied more on place kicking against Italy than they had in their three previous outings.

"We're still finding it difficult to all play the same type of game at the same time but it's coming," centre Yannick Jauzion added.

"We must keep that mentality and concentrate on offering solutions to the player who has the ball."

As in the old days, France looked clumsy at times against Italy, suffering in the scrums and particularly in the lineouts.

Some polishing and tightening is needed but the flamboyance that went missing under Laporte's guidance has definitely returned, which is good news to rugby romantics and promises a thrilling finale on Saturday against a like-minded Wales side.

Reuters