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France mindful of Georgia

Thion: Backing Betsen

France lock Jérôme Thion has urged his side not to underestimate Georgia in their Pool D encounter in Marseille on Sunday.

The Biarritz star insists the Georgian forwards are a formidable force and they are certainly on a roll after recording their first World Cup win against Namibia earlier in the week.

"They are a fantastic team up front," he said.

"In the up-front battles they caused a lot of problems against Ireland and Argentina.

"They are the team who have been the biggest surprise of the World Cup.

"We have to win territory, to find the touchline and to tackle them as quickly as possible. It's up to us to discover their traps.

"Amongst ourselves, we know that we have to win the match, but above all we have to respect them as opponents."

France, who lost to Argentina in their opening match, will qualify for the quarter-finals with a win.

Georgia need a bonus-point win against France, while denying France a bonus point, to have any chance of qualifying for the next round, and even then their progress will still depend on the result of Ireland's game with Argentina tomorrow afternoon.

There is much riding on it for France as the winners of Pool D will play a quarter-final against the Pool C runners-up - either Scotland or Italy - in Saint Denis a week on Sunday.

The runners-up of Pool D will play a quarter-final against New Zealand in Cardiff the day before.

Thion also said he was delighted that Serge Betsen, his club colleague, has been named captain for a match which France should win with some comfort.

"He is a leader of men and we like to follow him," said Thion.

"It's completely logical that he has been made captain. I played with him for four years at Biarritz and he does everything so that we can follow him.

"It would have been a lot easier for us if we had beaten Argentina. But we quickly put that bad match behind us. It's up to us to come out of it with our own weapons."

France flank Julien Bonnaire, meanwhile, welcomed the competition for places

"It's very good and we need that to progress," he said.

"We are competitors and we know that it is necessary to play at 150 per cent.

"We have to be aggressive and combative because they are solid up front.

"They are hard to play and it's going to be difficult to move their pack. Saying that, they might be tired having played on Wednesday [against Namibia].

"We have to start at 100km per hour like we did against Namibia. We have enjoyed the last two matches and we have to keep that going."