France lock Fabien Pelous hopes he and his team-mates will not spend their time chasing the backs of England players' shirts at Twickenham in the RBS 6 Nations opener on Saturday.

The French were smashed 48-19 on their last Twickenham visit two years ago, and experienced Toulouse forward Pelous recalls it as a particularly painful memory.

``The last match we played at Twickenham is one of my worst memories in my international career,'' he said.

``We managed to compete for one half, and then we collapsed physically.

``The only thing I can remember is the numbers of the players' shirts, simply because we had spent the whole match chasing the backs of them.

``I also remember a great feeling of helplessness. It was a bad year for us anyway.''

Since then, though, a lot has been achieved as the French side bounced back brilliantly under the command of scrum-half Fabien Galthie, culminating in last year's 6 Nations Grand Slam.

``In 2001, the team hardly knew each other, and we also had a lot of injured players,'' added Pelous. ``But things have changed a lot. The task on Saturday will be hard, but not impossible.''

Raphael Ibanez, Olivier Magne, Xavier Garbajosa, Gerald Merceron, Galthie and Pelous are still there - but the new generation of players including Aurelien Rougerie, Clement Poitrenaud, Nicolas Brusque and Dimitri Yachvilli have helped the team blossom.

``This huge defeat to England marked the end of a generation of players, and left the door open for a new one,'' said French coach Bernard Laporte.

``Many young and talented players integrated the team for the summer tour in 2001 and after that, while the `older' players managed to maintain their level and stay in the groove.''

England are unbeaten at Twickenham for 18 Tests, but Laporte remains adamant there is a possibility for France to triumph.

``We will have to perform in attack, while being aware that England's main strength is defence,'' Laporte added.

``If we realise during the game that they are unbreakable, then we will have to find other solutions.

``This is our first game of the tournament. Of course, we would have rather played against England a bit later, but we have prepared ourselves well during the past three Monday sessions.''

Laporte will announce his starting-line up later this morning at the squad's training ground in Marcoussis.