France prop Lionel Faure has described his Irish counterpart John Hayes as “unbelievable” after facing the Bruff man twice when playing for Sale against Munster this season.

Faure is, therefore, very familiar with Ireland’s front five and says coming up against Ireland’s pack on their own turf is one of the hardest challenges in rugby.

“I know all their front five and they are very aggressive, good in the scrum and Paul O’Connell especially is great in the line-out,” said Faure, who will this weekend earn his seventh cap.

“It will be very special to play in front of 85-90,000 people,” he said, overestimating Croke Park a little. “The Irish crowd are very vocal, like it was in Munster.

“My one-on-one against John Hayes is always difficult,” he added of the 35-year-old. “He is big and technical, and what is amazing is he never gets injured.

“He plays every game. He is 35, 36, and he plays 80 minutes every week and never gets hurt. He’s unbelievable.”

Faure admits there is a score to settle on Saturday despite victory in last year’s meeting.

The French defeated Ireland 26-21 at the Stade de France but their pack suffered the ignominy of conceding a penalty try in the second half after collapsing under pressure near their own line.

At the time, France head coach Marc Lievremont was chopping and changing his forwards at will, picking some inexperienced players who were clearly out of depth on the international scene.

Lievremont has since settled on his best team, with the likes of Faure and hooker Dimitri Szarzewski regular picks, and the scrum has improved as a result.

They were even awarded a penalty try of their own when Australia buckled under pressure during a November Test match in Paris. However, Faure has not forgotten about the blow to the pride struck by the Irish last February.

“When we played against Ireland in the last Six Nations, it was quite a bad point for us because we conceded that penalty-try.

“We were in trouble there at the last Six Nations. It has been forgotten a little bit because we scored one of our own against Australia but it is still fresh in the memory.

“Our scrum is getting better, though, I think. We are working very, very hard on it and I am sure we will keep going in the right direction.

“It is not 100 per cent perfect and there are always small points to improve on, but it’s getting better.

“It will be the first time we have played against Ireland since that match and we will be watching their scrum from last year on the tape.

“We have to be focused and ready to fight, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”