Springbok star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has sent injury-hit France a chilling message ahead of their titanic Nations Championship clash in Paris.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu produced a thrilling performance as the world champions hammered Italy 66-7, but the fly-half insists the world champions are far from their best.

That doesn’t bode well for France who are faced with a dilemma as to who play opposite Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Injuries to Mathieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and now Romain Ntamack have left them short in the pivotal position, and they may be forced to hand captain Antoine Dupont or fellow scrum-half, Maxime Lucu, the 10 jersey.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu said of the Italy win: “It’s a good confidence booster for the boys, but also a great reality check that we know we’re not near where we need to be.

“I think it’s a very special feeling to get to a changing room after a game and not be 100% happy with the performance we put out there, although the scoreline looked good.

“The nice thing with these back-to-back fixtures is your preparation from week to week all accumulates by the time you need it most. So, next week (Friday), we’ll be going in with two weeks of preparation, which is going to help us. I think we laid a good foundation.”

Feinberg-Mngomezulu played a crucial role in last year’s 32-17 victory over France in Paris and added: “I think we did very well in the beginning to stick to our structures. It was far from a perfect performance from us. We got a lot to work on for the next three big fixtures, but to tick a box at a very passionate and packed stadium was great for the boys.”

Full-back Damian Willemse is expecting a tough battle despite the injury problems hampering France and said: “Last year was a tough match. I think it was only in the 70th minute that we managed to break through and get the victory.”

The Springboks lead the Southern Hemisphere table in the Nations Championship thanks to their victory over Italy, which has given them a big points difference advantage over the All Blacks who are also on 20 points.