The France side Wales meet in Cardiff tonight is different to the cliched 'which French team will turn up?' we have become so accustomed to in recent times.
Doubtless due to the Shaun Edwards factor, they seem to have eradicated the lack of discipline and inconsistency that has prevented them from reaching their full potential.
They've always had a fearsome pack - trust me, whenever you finished a game with the French you were nursing plenty of bumps and bruises - and backs capable of producing dazzling rugby. However, a tendency to do something daft, give away a string of needless penalties and self-implode made France their own worst enemies.
That seems to have changed. The discipline is much better, the forwards and backs dovetail as one and much of that is down to France's brilliant half-back pairing of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack.
Dupont quite rightly gets the credit, he's viewed as the best player in the world and who am I to argue with that?
He barks orders at his forwards, snipes around the edges and is always a threat.
But for me the one who really links everything together is Ntamack, who tends to go under the radar a little because of the brilliance of Dupont just inside him.
The key to Welsh hopes of victory is stopping Ntamack. We have to control him, more than another French player, including Dupont, because otherwise he will control the game and dictate play.
Ntamack is only 22, but he already looks an assured fly-half maestro. More of a throwback to French No.10s from yesteryear.
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He started in this team at 19, but Dupont grabbed the headlines and that took the pressure off Ntamack somewhat. It benefited him, enabled him to learn at this level.
Make no mistake though, he's already a world class performer in his own right. It is Ntamack, not Dupont, who gets the backline going at the right time. If he sees something is on, the ball will be fizzed out to his centres or wings.
If he spots a gap, he is into it.
If he senses nothing is on, he will go back to his forwards. Like the best No.10s he has a knack of knowing when the time is right to expand, when to kick for field position for those big forwards in front of him and when to ask the pack to take it up a few more yards.
Stop him getting into his stride, dictating everything, and Wales can go some way to stopping France.
It is for this reason I'm disappointed Wayne Pivac has dropped Taine Basham - and this is nothing against Josh Navidi, let me emphasise.
Regular readers of this column will know how highly I rate the Cardiff man, but the reality is he's a six really, probably more a six and a half, as opposed to an out and out openside these days.
Navidi has many qualities and will certainly look to slow down French ball, but he doesn't have the speed of Basham, or a conventional openside like Justin Tipuric or the other great sevens we tend to produce.
What Wales need to do is get right in Ntamack's face, let it be known the moment the ball is in his hands the Welsh back row are ready to oblige with a crunching tackle. He's a cool customer, but even the calmest players can buckle during the intensity of Test match rugby, particularly with a fanatical Principality Stadium crowd roaring on Wales.
Basham would have been better suited to this role. That's the way he plays anyway, he's there to disrupt, upset the opposition. He's quick to get in their faces and personally I feel Pivac should have stuck by him.
He's done well so far in his brief Test career.
Navidi could perhaps have played at six for this one?
In Basham's absence, Wales will need to find different ways of combating Ntamack, but combat him they will need to.
He's been able to blossom at such a tender age because of the money men owners in France moving away from foreign No.10s they used to so love. Previously they wanted a ready-made fly-half to win games - and as such we saw the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Dan Carter, Ronan O'Gara, Jonathan Sexton and Stephen Jones head to play their rugby across the Channel.
This, of course, came at the expense of the French developing their own 10s, but Ntamack has come through and is setting the benchmark for everyone else.
With him, Dupont, the powerful and pacy backs outside them and the customary big pack of forwards, it puts France in a great position building towards next year's World Cup on home soil.
For the moment, the focus is upon the today and their Grand Slam hopes.
I fear they'll have too much for us and set up a showdown with England for next weekend.
But we proved last time out against England in the second-half we possess backs who can score tries. I'm anticipating a fast open game and that could play to our advantage, rather than a slug fest against their powerful forwards.
Liam Williams, Josh Adams and Alex Cuthbert can cause problems in an expansive game, have no doubt about that.
But France have a more settled team, Pivac has made a number of changes again.
I just hope the decision to leave out Basham doesn't prove to be a costly one.
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