Noves sees progression
France opened with narrow wins over Italy (23-21) and Ireland (10-9) before going down to Wales (10-19), Scotland (18-29) and England (21-31). That left them fifth on four points, with only Italy below them.
"You say it's the best but it's a match that has been lost!" Noves told AFP in an interview on Sunday, a day after the entertaining defeat by Grand Slam winners England.
"At least during the first half, we felt this constant progression throughout the tournament.
"Our goal was to first identify a type of player with whom we want to work… and I think we really managed to put that in place.
"The guys understood what our projet was, where we wanted to go together, what the honour of the shirt represented. There wasn't a moment where we relaxed that."
Noves left Toulouse to take over from Philippe Saint-Andre at the head of the national XV following a disastrous World Cup from which France exited after a humiliating quarterfinal defeat by eventual winners New Zealand.
But the known taskmaster, who led Toulouse to four European Cup titles, insisted he was pleased with what he had seen as France coach.
"It's good, it's the base, we will be able to lean on that, we have a human side, we're competitors, at times warriors," he said.
"Now we have to help give them the weapons needed to get closer to our rivals."
Maxime Machenaud kept France ticking against England with seven penalties, but it was the free running of fullback Scott Spedding and wing Virimi Vakatawa that caught the eye, especially in the first 40 minutes.
"During the first half we saw a way of playing with great quality. We can say to ourselves that the project is starting to work. Once we fix a few details, we can again become competitive.
"Experience is also increasing and that is vital because the players are very young in this new project."
Noves added that hooker Guilhem Guirado, one of the stand-out players of the Six Nations, will continue as captain until the 2019 World Cup.
"Guilhem is an international class player, he could play in no matter what team. He's progressed in that sense and on top of that he's a great lad," Noves said.
"In the base of a team you need a great captain and he's just that. He's young so he'll continue to the end of this project."
Noves admitted he would envisage "different goals" come the tour to Argentina given the likely absence of a number of key players.
"We'll have to have different goals on the tour. We can't have the same goals as we did in the Six Nations during which we used the same group of players," he said.
France are scheduled to play two Test matches against Argentina, on June 18 and 25, but without players who will compete in the Top 14 semifinals set for June 17 and 18.
"It will allow us to open a little bit. We will try to integrate these new players in a matter of a few days. We'll have to deal with jetlag and prepare for matches against an Argentina team whose level we know well," Noves said.
"We'll build a team for the end-of-season tour which will play a side in full swing [ahead of the Rugby Championship]."
Agence France-Presse
