Galthie left with 'bitter taste' as France edge Italy in Six Nations

France head coach Fabien Galthié said he had been left with a "bitter taste" after his team opened their Guinness Six Nations defence with a nervy victory over Italy in Rome.

Having been 19-6 up midway through the first half, France then found themselves behind in the second before Matthieu Jalibert's try saw them claim a 29-24 win.

Galthié, whose side will now face world No 1-ranked Ireland in Dublin next Saturday, told L’Equipe: "We are satisfied to have won it, to have taken the offensive bonus – two of the objectives we had set ourselves – but we must admit that it was hard.

"The performance is mixed to say the least, it leaves us with a bitter taste. We didn’t achieve all our goals in this game, that’s clear.

"But we have the right, collectively, not to always be on top, always be in line with our expectations that have evolved over the past two years.

"We must say that winning an international match, in the tournament, away, is already important. Now we are aware that we must do much better."

France conceded 18 penalties and defence coach Shaun Edwards said major improvement is required ahead of their trip to the Aviva Stadium.

Edwards told ITV Sport: "First half, we were quite dominant. They came on leaps and bounds in the second half and obviously at the end it was a very tight affair, but we are in a good habit of winning tight games at the moment.

"It happened against Australia, against South Africa, it's happened in a few games.

"Hopefully we can continue that habit, but I think we all know if we don't put up a better performance next week we'll be on the end of a 15-30 point hiding."

As well as Jalibert, Thibault Flament, Thomas Ramos and debutant Ethan Dumortier got on the scoresheet for France, while Ange Capuozzo