France believe Antoine Frisch is committed to their cause despite Andy Farrell leaving the door open

The 27-year-old qualifies to play for Ireland through his grandmother, represented Emerging Ireland and has spoken of his desire to play at senior level for Andy Farrell’s side after making the move to Munster in 2022.

However, he has been unable to break into the Irish squad and, although Farrell has been in contact with the URC winner, so has France coach Fabien Galthié who called him up last weekend.

Frisch remains available to play for Ireland and could potentially be involved in the summer tour to South Africa, but with France likely to leave a number of established players behind when they go to Argentina it appears they have stolen a march.

And, if former France international Jeanjean is right then Munster could be put in a similar bind to the one they were in when Ben Healy declared for Scotland and Jean Kleyn switched allegiances to South Africa.

"Fabien has really been in a relationship with him for several seasons,” Jeanjean said.

“It's the player who will decide, of course, but it's a French player who seems delighted to be there. Tuesday, as he hadn't played last week, we had a slightly more difficult session with him, there were a lot of smiles, a lot of commitment.

“I think that if he is here, it is because he is committed and he is proud to wear the (French) colours that are his at the moment.”

Jeanjean revealed that Munster were happy to provide Frisch’s training data and will do the same.

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“He is a player with the profile of a grafter, someone who tasted the high level quite late, through strong choices, since he left for another country to be exposed to the highest level," he said.

“He started in England (with Bristol), and now he plays in Ireland. The performance environment of Anglo-Saxon countries is very different from that of France.

“There is a lot of rigour around the approach to sport, particularly rugby.

“This dictated the processes that are useful to him today.

“It's interesting because it's the first time that we exchanged in terms of physical preparation with an Irish club, in this case Munster, since there had never been a French player called up for the selection coming from there before.

“It was good to have discussions with the Munster staff, it was a first step that was taken in a good way. They sent us a whole bunch of data from his training, and when Antoine returns to the club, we will also send data from his sessions with us.

“It’s a healthy and interesting . Everything is in the player's interest, the goal is for there to be maximum continuity in the work.

“Antoine is a boy that I didn't know physically, but the more information about his work we have, the better we can train him. Fabien has been in contact with him for a while now. He has a particular profile because few French players play abroad today.

“The financial strength of our Championship means that our players stay in France.

“Concerning him, the opportunity presented itself with the injury of Pierre-Louis Barassi (sprained ankle). It was the right time for Fabién to summon him, to spend time together, to discover him on a human and rugby level.”

Despite the French confidence that they can get Frisch to commit, Farrell has said the door is open to him playing for Ireland.

"He’s in our thoughts and I understand you asking that question. I spoke to Antoine previously in regards to what we think of him and I know he was very ambitious to play international rugby for Ireland as well," the Ireland coach said yesterday.

“I suppose the call came [from France] and he jumped at it immediately because he wanted to show his ambition to play international rugby and see how far he could push himself in that regard.

“He’s 100% still at the front of our minds. The competition for us in that position has been fierce for a number of years now. Stu McCloskey is unbelievably unlucky to miss out this week (against Scotland) because he’s been in flying form so you can see the type of competition that’s there.

“But taking him [Frisch] on the Emerging Ireland tour, he’s someone that was straight to the top of the list as far as pushing for places and we think he’s a great player."

Farrell was asked if he has any regret about not capping Frisch to tie him to Ireland.

"Well, I mean, these games are pretty important that we’ve got,” he said.

“It’s my duty to do the team justice by making sure the right people, if available, are in the squad. That’s a matter of opinion sometimes but in that position, it’s a tough one and Antoine would be the first one to admit that as well.

“Now, for the rest of the season, he’s obviously got an opportunity to show his worth, his improvement and therefore be in the running like everyone else."