Giteau says Australia must improve to beat French

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia flyhalf Matt Giteau has dismissed suggestions the Wallabies will have little trouble beating an understrength France in their two tests.

Giteau said the Wallabies, who struggled to beat Ireland 18-12 in their first outing of the season in Melbourne two weeks ago, were expecting another torrid encounter against the unpredictable French.

"We are under no illusions, this is going to be a tough test, as much as everyone else is saying otherwise," Giteau said.

"They've got nothing to lose...by the sounds of things, they will try to play tight, but they've also got the players, that if they want to, they can throw the ball around."

Giteau, who is still adjusting to his new position after playing most of his previous tests at inside centre, said he expected the Australians to improve on their performance against Irish.

The Wallabies showed some encouraging signs by scoring two smart tries in the first half then defending strongly in the second term when they had little possession but still struggled for long periods.

"I suppose we did switch off a little bit in the second half and we had to defend a lot of time, though I think defensively we were really happy with our effort," Giteau said.

"But attack wise, there's huge improvement. We only put together maybe 25 minutes of good attractive running with the ball, so we've still got a long way to go."