France international Sandra Le Drean is refusing to accept she has become the team's new star after she made a huge contribution to her country's 65-54 win over Hungary in their first Euro 2005 qualifier.

Le Drean displayed an almost perfect performance against coach Lazio Ratgeber's troops, scoring 12 points in the first quarter and a total of 16 after 28 minutes of play.

At the break the French players were already leading by 18 points (38-20) before the Hungarians fought back to trail by just six points with four minutes left to play.

But the impact of Le Drean as well as Edwige Lawson and Cathy Melain helped France re-take the lead and keep it until the end of the tie.

"I don't feel I have performed exceptionally well," Le Drean said in L'Equipe.

"Responsibilities rest on all the players. I don't have a specific offensive mission.

"What I want is to be part of a team and our strength is first of all the combativeness we put in defence.

"Without a collective spirit we can't do anything, and that's what makes us win and can allow us to qualify for the Euro 2005."

France, the 2001 European champions, are now topping their group over Lithuania, Italy and Hungary and Le Drean is convinced they are on the right track.

"We are playing really well at the moment," she added.

"Physically they offered a huge challenge and we managed to respond to it. It was good to have defeated Serbia three times during our preparation matches because they have a similar game to Hungary and it boosted our confidence."

France missed out on the Athens Olympics this summer after finishing fifth in the 2003 European Championships in Greece.

"Watching the Olympics on the television was an enormous frustration," Le Drean added.

"Qualifying for the Euro should only be one stage, we must also target the World championships (in Brazil in 2006) because those events are fantastic competitions for a national team."

France will take on Lithuania in Le Mans on Saturday.