Win or lose Saturday's Six Nations game with France in Dublin, Ireland captain Ciara Griffin will hear all about it come Monday morning.

"I teach seven and eight year olds and they are a lovely bunch of kids, they really do put a smile on my face.

"They are my best critics and will tell you if you do something wrong but they always encourage you," Griffin said.

"They all watch the matches and coverage of our games is increasing all the time, which is great."

Ireland lost 47-17 when they last played France, who are semi-professional, two years ago but current form lines are blurred by a lack of game-time due to the pandemic.

With no club or provincial rugby taking place in Ireland ahead of this year's Six Nations Championship, the Irish girls instead committed to a huge number of training camps since their last fixture against Italy last October.

Judging by last weekend's impressive 45-0 win over Wales, they have put the time to good use but Griffin is well aware the French - who beat Wales 53-0 two weeks ago - are a huge step up in quality.

"Like most nations the delay to the tournament wasn't ideal or what we were expecting," she says.

"We have teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, people working in labs, so a wide range of professionals here, but we have a committed squad and a great bunch of resilient players who were itching to put in a performance against Wales.

"We were happy to get the win but looking back at it we knew there were lots of things for us to improve on.

"If we win we're in the final which is great for that extra bit of motivation."

Ireland head coach Adam Griggs has identified French wing Caroline Boujard, who scored a hat-trick against Wales, as a player his team must stop and says Ireland must disrupt their opponents at the breakdown.

Slowing down French ball and staying patient in attack will be Ireland's twin aims and second row Nichola Fryday said: "I know that they (France) play fast, but we like to play fast too".

"In terms of defence, we'll be trying to get up and shut them down.

"If we can bring that intensity in defence, then we'll shut down that tempo that they may have and if we can bring tempo on our attack, we'll be putting their defence under pressure.

"It ultimately does come back to us as a squad making sure that we're ready to go on both sides of our game."