But while Johns is a rugby league Immortal, controversial former player Elias looms as the trump card against his former Lebanon squad.

Elias is a former Lebanon coach and the man who recruited a teenage Robbie Farah to the national side in 2002.

He has been helping France prepare for the World Cup and Johns has joined the squad as a consultant before they play their first game against Lebanon in Canberra on October 29.

"John Elias, another famous Australian [will be a] sports consultant in charge of providing the French staff with useful information about his compatriots as [a former Lebanon coach]," France said when announcing their team.

The last players of the French side arrived at their Narrabeen base on Friday ahead of pool games against French side has been based at Narrabeen and will play pool games against Lebanon, Australia and England.

Former Bulldogs and Parramatta star Jim Dymock ran the French players through a wrestling session on Friday and Johns has taken on a kick-coach role despite the language barrier.

"It's very informal, I just got asked to come over and do some general-play kicking with them," Johns said on Friday.

"They go to Canberra now and I'll watch from afar. But I'm looking forward to seeing how they go, especially against Lebanon.

"I didn't really know [what to expect] until I watched them train and they do everything at 100 miles an hour. I couldn't believe how physical and strong their big boys were.

"They seem like a tight-knit unit. I don't understand what they're talking about when they're in their foreign tongue, but they seem close. I think they'll surprise some teams and they'll be right up for Lebanon."

Johns, who has finished his Lebanon coaching duties, admitted France may get "blown away" by Australia and England in a tough pool.

But the match they're targeting is an opener against Lebanon and toppling the likes of Farah, Tim Mannah and Mitchell Moses and will be coached by Brad Fittler.

French coach Aurelien Cologni said: "We've had long travel and we need to fix our spirit ... all is in place for the players.

"It's good for our players to work with people like Andrew and [Dymock] to help them learn different things because they are specialists.

"It's a real positive for us and I'm very happy for the players because they can work with a legend of rugby league.

"We know [Lebanon] is a very proud country and play with a lot of passion. They have great players in their side and we have tried to prepare for them with a lot of [NRL] video of the players.

"We want to give the maximum of our French spirit ... we came here to get some results. We know we are in a tough group, but we just want to win the respect."

The rugby league World Cup will start when Australia plays against England on October 27.

France will play two of their three pool games in Canberra, with their second against Australia on November 3.

CANBERRA WORLD CUP GAMES

October 29: France v Lebanon at Canberra Stadium, 4pm.

November 3: Australia v France at Canberra Stadium, 8pm.

November 10: Fiji v Italy at Canberra Stadium, 7.40pm.