Rhys Webb seeks fast start to silence Paris crowd as Wales hunt key Six Nations victory
Friday 17 March 2017 13:51, UK
Rhys Webb believes Wales will need to go up another level in terms of performance when they target a sixth successive win against France on Saturday.
Webb and company head to Paris on the back of a biggest victory over Ireland for 34 years.
And while all hope of Six Nations title success has gone, the runners-up spot behind England - plus a possible top-four world ranking - feature high on Wales' agenda this weekend.
Wales will go fourth in the rankings ahead of May's 2019 World Cup pool draw if they beat France and Ireland lose to England in Dublin.
And that would be an impressive outcome from a tournament that could easily have drifted into oblivion following successive mid-campaign losses against England and Scotland.
"There was relief (after Ireland)," Wales scrum-half Webb said. "There had been a lot of people knocking us and saying 'he should be gone, he should be changed'.
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"As players and coaches, we don't take any notice of that, but the pressure was on from ourselves to deliver because we know what we can do.
"We are all good players, we have competition for places and we know what our standards are. That was there for 70 minutes against England and 40 against Scotland, then 80 against Ireland.
"We know we have to play with that consistency. Our target was to win it (Six Nations) with a Grand Slam, but that went, and now there is the chance to finish second.
"We have got a job to do, and we need to back up Ireland and go up another level again. I am pretty confident we can do that."
Webb says a quick start will be vital to Welsh hopes in Paris, where better teams have been beaten after letting the vociferous home crowd get on top of them.
He added: "We need to go out and express ourselves in the first 20 minutes. We can't let the French crowd into the game, and we have to look after the ball. France have dangerous players, probably the best attack in the tournament so far, and they are going to thrive off our mistakes.
"We have to respect the ball and look to play some good rugby. We showed glimpses of that last Friday against Ireland, and I think there is another level in us."
Key to French victory hopes will be Northampton number eight Louis Picamoles, who has made more than 300 metres and carried possession 56 times during Les Bleus' Six Nations campaign so far, and Webb said: "He is a massive player for them, a guy we need to shut down early.
"In fairness, we have fronted up against these big guys during the tournament. We are expecting him to come at us and carry hard. Hopefully, we can stop him at the gain-line and stop his momentum."
