France have won their last three matches against the Welsh, and have a superior World Cup history, but still the French insist it will count for nothing at Eden Park.

“I am not sure we are favorites for this game,” backs coach Emile Ntamack said. “We are under pressure.

“We know we can play well, but regardless, there is no certainty that that will be enough. Our best might not be enough.”

Morgan Parra, who is likely to be handed the kicking duties as Dimitri Yachvili struggles to regain fitness, agreed.

“I’m not so certain we are favorites — Wales have a great game. But in saying that, I think we have what it takes, we will be ready for this match.”

France number eight Imanol Harinordoquy said it was always dangerous to go into a match as favorites.

“We prefer to be the outsiders — it is better for your preparation that way,” he said.

“But this is the semi-final of a World Cup. We don’t have to look at whether we are outsiders or favorites ... we need to look at what we want to do.

“They are in a semi-final of a World Cup — they are a good team, they have good spirit, they have young players and the most dangerous thing for us is they are very fluid.”

Harinordoquy said the Welsh would be a very different proposition to their quarter-final victims, the English.

“On the pitch they are more dangerous than England,” he said. “Because you don’t know what they are going to do.

“They are agile and very skilful players. They have good footwork and their forward are very brave as well.

“We can analyze their games from video, but once the game is on the field, that is where the problem starts. We will have to be able to face the challenge. Sometimes we will have to put up with their attacks. We can’t panic.”

Lock Pascal Pape said patience would be key.

“We will try to dominate them as much as possible, but we have to be more patient and more intelligent than last week,” the 31-year-old said.

“Their front row is very mobile. They have a very good lineout and they seem to be more mobile than we are. It is not that they are faster than us, but they have their strong points and we have ours. We have to make them run less.

“We have to be strong on set piece and when we get possession of the ball play our game.”