France coach Fabien Galthie has hailed his side’s heroic defensive effort after a gutsy 13-9 victory over Wales that kept alive dreams of a first Six Nations Grand Slam in 12 years.

The only obstacle to France’s first championship clean sweep for the holy grail of rugby union in the northern hemisphere since 2010 is England, who travel to Paris next week.

Galthie said the players would celebrate the Welsh win, but then immediately turn their focus to the English challenge ahead. “What’s important is to win,” he said after watching his team keep Wales tryless in a home Six Nations match for the first time since 2009.

“In this competition, when you have won a string of matches, the tough thing is to win again, especially against a very tactical team.”

Galthie, a former France scrumhalf and skipper, was under no illusion about what lay ahead and how his “talented and ambitious players and a staff that leaves nothing to chance” would go about it.

“The dream scenario is to win all the matches,” he said. “The team is young, the team is progressing. We’re going to celebrate, have a nice weekend, then get into the working week, get in position and play the game.

“We’re going to focus on that objective from Monday. We just have to go on our route as we’ve done and not change route, grow and get better.”

France captain Antoine Dupont, who was largely closed down by an aggressive Wales defence, added: “We have to be better in attack and kicking. We had difficulties in these two fields in the first half, and also catching high balls and linked phase play. We’ll have to improve those, as well as defence and discipline.

“Most of the team is already thinking about the match against England, we’re all looking forward to playing next Saturday.”

© Agence France-Presse