Sunday 15 February 2015 14:30, UK
France prop Uini Atonio believes Ireland are in "pole position" to pull off a Six Nations Grand Slam.
Ireland beat France 18-11 in Dublin on Saturday to set up a potential Six Nations decider with England at the Aviva Stadium on March 1.
England easily beat Italy 47-17 at Twickenham on Saturday, leaving Stuart Lancaster and Joe Schmidt's sides the only unbeaten teams in the tournament.
"They won the tournament last year, so they are capable of doing that again," Atonio said:
"And they are in pole position to do the Grand Slam I think.
"To be honest I'm not looking down on them but I hope they could lose one game, because that would still give us a chance of winning the tournament.
"It's such a tough competition, so if you're not on you're a game you're going to lose.
"I know we've still got a chance, but Ireland are the front-runners now.
"All of us front-row replacements came on in the second-half and it's our job to change the pace of the game.
I know we've still got a chance, but Ireland are the front-runners now.
"I think we did that, and Romain (Taofifenua) scored a good try as well.
"If we'd played another 10 minutes we would have won - but hats off to Ireland because they played a great game.
"We saw the way they've played, they've moved up the IRB rankings and they are a world-class team.
"So if you want to beat a world-class team at their home ground then you have to put in a world-class performance.
"We played six or seven out of 10 but you can't beat teams of this level with that.
"We let them in and they played well, structured and they did what they came out to do."
Leinster Flanker Sean O'Brien, who on Saturday made his first Test appearance for Ireland since November 2013, has warned the Irish not to view the England game as a revenge mission.
Ireland's last defeat came at Twickenham in a 13-10 loss in last year's Six Nations, and O'Brien admitted a bid to settle the scores would only end one way.
"It's not a case of revenge, it's a case of being composed, measured and making sure we have all our detail in place, and that we're singing off the same hymn-sheet.
"We certainly won't be building the England game up.
"They had a big win and we know all about them from last year and what they bring to the table."
