Moriarty keen to keep place

Wales number eight Ross Moriarty is looking forward to facing Louis Picamoles when his side travel to Paris to take on France on Saturday.

Both these teams are now out of the running for Six Nations glory after England beat Scotland, but rankings points and pride are on the line.

Moriarty can hold his head high after his performances and he cannot wait, if selected, to lock horns with the powerful French number eight.

"I've played against him (Picamoles) when he has played for Northampton and he's a huge player for France," he told the Welsh Rugby Union.

"He is very similar to Nathan Hughes for England, one of their main ball carriers. We know if we can stop him on the front foot, then we have got a good chance.

"He is a huge man, a very experienced player. Hopefully we can do a job on him."

Moriarty impressed in last week's win over Ireland and could keep his place in the XV ahead of Taulupe Faletau, something he hopes happens.

"You can only get better the more you experience international rugby," he added.

"Every game I take as it comes and I am just looking to make the most of it.

"Sam and Tips had a lot of tackles at the weekend and I think I ended up having the most carries in the team. We have all worked our own little goals.

"That is one of the things I wanted to do, make more carries. I thought I did that, even though it was into brick walls. Sam and Tips defended very well and it was nice to play with them."

Looking ahead to this week's Paris clash, Moriarty was quick to rubbish any talk of the game being a dead rubber and expects a full-on Test.

"Definitely not," he said. "France have got everything to play for in their own back yard and we have got everything to play for.

"If results go our way, we could still come second in the championship. It is a big game."