France 37 Italy 12: Thomas Castaignede admitted France will need to step up a gear if they are to beat England after toiling to beat Italy at the Stade de France on Saturday.
Italy led 12-8 after an error-ridden first half but France improved after the break and underlined their dominance with tries from Yannick Nyanga, Pieter de Villiers, Aurelien Rougerie and Frederic Michalak.
France had recovered from their shock opening match defeat against Scotland at Murrayfield with victory over Ireland in Paris but failed to find their rhythm in an erratic first half display.
Thomas Lievremont's try and a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty were cancelled out by three penalties and a drop goal from Ramiro Pez and Castaignede acknowledged that the French have yet to fire on all cylinders. "In the next game against England if we want to win we will have to do much better than we did today," Castaignede said.
"At this level, whoever you play, you must do everything right and we didn't today."
France coach Bernard Laporte has had injury disruptions to cope with - notably classy centre Yannick Jauzion.
Unlike against Ireland a fortnight ago when France let a 41-3 lead slip to 43-31 in the second half and incurred the displeasure of their own supporters, they saved their best for the second half on this occasion and sent their fans home happy.
The fact that they scored all five tries of the match - through Thomas Lievremont in the first half and Yannick Nyanga, Pieter De Villiers, Aurelien Rougerie and Frederic Michalak after the break - illustrated that the win was deserved for Bernard Laporte's men. Italy had put on a defensive performance in an error-ridden first half but the trusty boot of stand-off Ramiro Pez gave them the edge in terms of points.
France's Jean-Baptiste Elissalde put the first points on the board with a penalty but then three penalties from Pez turned the score 9-3 in favour of the youngest members of the Six Nations family.
A rare moment of invention from Elissalde then created the only try of the first half for recalled number eight Thomas Lievremont who had a simple task of touching down in the corner after an angled kick from the scrum half had left the Italian defence exposed.
When France did take the lead it came with another touch of brilliance that had been largely absent from the match. Italy full-back Cristian Stoica pumped a clearance towards Christophe Dominici who fed Florian Fritz and the centre's mazy run created the opening that allowed him to offload to Yannick Nyanga who touched down in the corner for a try which was not converted. Italy have performed well but not well enough in their three matches this season and now they must try to do what they can to avoid the wooden spoon.
FRANCE: Castaignede; Rougerie, Fritz, Traille, Dominici; Michalak, Elissalde; Milloud, Ibanez, De Villiers, Pelous, Thion, Nyanga, Magne, Lievremont. Replacements: Marty for Traille (52), Yachvili for Elissalde (39), Marconnet for Milloud (52), Nallet for Pelous (78), Bonnaire for Magne (74).
ITALY: Stoica; Canavosio, Canale, M. Bergamasco, Nitoglia; Pez, Griffen; Perugini, Ongaro, Nieto, Del Fava, Bortolami, Sole, M. Bergamasco, Parisse. Replacements: Picone for Griffen (63), Lo Cicero for Perugini (71), Festuccia for Ongaro (69), Castrogiovanni for Nieto (66), Zanni for Sole (75). Sin Bin: Del Fava (63).
Referee: T Spreadbury (England).
