France v England Preview: Even the England head coach Andy Robinson accepts that tomorrow's game at Stade de France is the season's pivotal moment. "It's important for us to beat France to know where we are as a team," he conceded yesterday, rejecting all invitations to downplay its significance.

Theoretically the Six Nations does not have a knockout element but, as far as Robinson and his opposite number Bernard Laporte are concerned, it suddenly feels that way.

Neither coach needs advising of the repercussions of a bad defeat. The fall-out would extend far beyond the depressing prospect of mid-table mediocrity in this year's championship.

If England were to lose by 20 points and again fail to ignite behind the scrum, serious questions would have to be addressed if they plan to be contenders at next year's World Cup.

For France, as World Cup hosts, an abject capitulation would prompt an even greater screech of guillotine-sharpening.

So the most likely scenario is an arm-wrestling contest. If the contest does unfold along time-honoured lines France should be the more apprehensive.

England may have lost at Murrayfield - as did the French - but no one has queried their character or the quality of their defence.

Two tries conceded in three games, one from a lineout mistake against Wales, is an impressive statistic and France have averaged only one try per game in the last three meetings, dating back to the World Cup semi-final in Sydney.

There have been eight home wins out of nine in this year's Six Nations, but England have developed the habit of responding well to the underdog tag.

In losing narrowly to the All Blacks in November they created a template which they will attempt to re-employ this weekend, and Robinson has hinted that France remain vulnerable to disciplined forward effort.

"I think you can still strangle them," he said. "I think their frustrations would still come out if we did that."

Robinson has also taken the unusual step of publicly naming four opponents - Frederic Michalak, Florian Fritz, Thomas Castaignede and Fabien Pelous - whom he wants his side to get stuck into.

"We've got to target Michalak, and Fritz has got a slight injury, hasn't he?

"Castaignede has got a bit of a fever and Pelous is a rock as a captain so we've got to get at him. Whichever team raises their game goes on to play for the championship."

Charlie Hodgson accepts it will be a significant test of the world champions' ability to perform under pressure.

"It was a disappointing game for us against them at Twickenham last year, and hopefully we can put things right," he said.

"France have shown glimpses of magical rugby this season, and they've also had their low times during games. Hopefully, we can put them under a lot of pressure, but France are very unpredictable.

"They can turn up on the day and destroy anybody, so we have to make sure we defend well.

"I think you have to be prepared for the unexpected, but the only thing you can really do is concentrate on their previous games, look at their patterns of running and what they have been doing.

"You expect something unpredictable, but at the same time over the duration of an 80-minute game there is going to be something in there that you might have seen before," added Hodgson.

Guardian Service