France captain Thierry Dusautoir says his side must put the possibility of claiming the Six Nations Grand Slam to the back of their minds as they prepare to meet Italy in Paris at the weekend.
France are the only unbeaten team left in the tournament and can secure the Six Nations trophy if they defeat Italy on Sunday and other results go their way, while victory against Italy and then England on March 20 would bring them their first Grand Slam since 2004.
Dusautoir, though, says the team cannot afford to look too far ahead.
"I hear the Grand Slam being talked about everywhere, among the journalists and among the public," said the Toulouse back-row forward at the French training camp on Monday.
"Among us (the players), we don't dare to talk about it openly but we're not completely unaware of what people are saying. We hear what's said, we read the papers.
"What we need is a bit of perspective. I know that perspective doesn't really sell papers but we mustn't put the cart before the horse.
"If we don't do things in the right order, we'll carry on winning a few games here, a few games there, and all we'll win is crumbs. I've had enough of crumbs."
France thrashed Italy 50-8 in last year's meeting between the sides in Rome but Dusautoir said they could not afford to under-estimate their opponents, despite having home advantage on their side.
"It's always a tricky match against the Italians, it's never been easy," he said. "They'll be out for revenge after what happened last year and they've just won against Scotland.
"It'll be a huge test, especially in the scrum, which is one of their strong points. The scrum has been one of our most effective weapons over the first three matches and we have to make sure we continue in that vein."
Dusautoir played for 40 minutes in Toulouse's 29-0 Top 14 victory at Parisian rivals Stade Francais at the weekend but he said he would prefer not to have to focus on club rugby during the Six Nations.
"From a personal perspective, I'd prefer to play the whole Six Nations in one go," he said.
"It's not easy to re-focus on a different objective.
"We have directors, they have to make the decisions."
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