"People say he's not got a great deal of experience at a high level [as a coach], but he does some fantastic work.
"Some of the things he's said about the players have been totally justified. It's always a situation where if you have a bad game you don't like people telling you.
"Marc is one of those guys who tells players, but occasionally tells the press as well because of his openness."
Ellis - who came from a league background and has been with the French since being hired 11 years ago by former coach "Barmy" Bernard Laporte - said the squad had a good day on Sunday. Since then, things have been on the up and up.
"Certain things have been mentioned in the press and taken out of context, that's all."
Ellis is well aware of the French tendency to "go from the basement to the penthouse in seven days".
He puts the ordinary French form in their four pool games down to the lack of a serious motivating factor.
"It's the culture of the players, and the game, in France. They rely on a lot of emotion, and when you look at what's happened over the first four games they haven't had to put that emotion into gear," Ellis said.
"They were expected to win against Canada and Japan, expected to lose to New Zealand and the surprise was losing to Tonga, but they had almost qualified for the quarter-finals anyway.
"From the time the draw was made it was always stamped down: it would be a quarter-final between England and France."
Ellis knows the reputations of the two teams, one for consistency, the other for the lack of it.
But he pointed out that in his time with France they have won three Grand Slam titles, five Six Nations crowns and been Europe's most consistent team in that period.
He expects no issues for France getting themselves primed for Saturday night.
"The French embrace the challenge. They've got to put some of the memories of the first four games behind them, get on with the job in hand and hopefully qualify for the semifinal.
"The enemy is right in front of you, so there's no greater motivation than that."
England's World Cup record against France is impressive.
Three wins to one defeat, in the unloved third-fourth playoff in 1995, and those wins were in the 1991 quarter-final and the semifinals of the last two editions of the Cup.
Why?
Classy halfback Dimitri Yachvili puts it down to the basics.
"In the quarter, semi and final, if you are very good at the scrum, lineout, defence and your kicking play you can beat everybody," he said yesterday. "Maybe mentally also they were better than us during the last World Cup.
"But now we are ready."
Yachvili talked of England's resilient qualities; Ellis admitted the English hadn't done much wrong so far - even off the field, suggesting again a sense of proportion had been lost in the reporting of their behaviour.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with England. They haven't shown a lot yet, but I'd be happy winning all four pool games," Ellis said.
Asked whether England lacked the inherent qualities to beat the likes of the All Blacks or South Africa later in the cup, Ellis retorted: "They've got to beat France first."
Yachvili made it plain France, for all their recent difficulties, had no intention of departing next week.
"We didn't train for three months to stop in the quarter-finals."
