All Blacks gave us a lesson, French admit

Byron Kelleher goes past Yannick Jauzion to score against France. Picture / Reuters

PARIS, - After New Zealand overpowered France 45-6 - their highest ever score and biggest winning margin on French soil - les bleus conceded they had been completely outplayed.

The All Blacks ran in five tries through Rodney So'oialo, Jerry Collins, Byron Kelleher, Ma'a Nonu and Daniel Carter, who also contributed four conversions and four penalties for a personal tally of 25 points.

The win means the All Blacks are still on course for a clean sweep of victories on this tour after defeating Italy 59-10 and Wales 26-25.

They face a strong Barbarians side next Saturday at Twickenham. For the French, who suffered a shock defeat by Argentina last weekend, the result was another setback in their build-up to the World Cup on home soil in 2007.

They ended their three-match November series with only one win, against Australia, and defeats by Argentina and New Zealand.

France captain Fabien Pelous said: "Physically, the All Blacks were stronger and faster. They gave us a lesson.

"We did what we could but we know now that the road to the 2007 World is going to be very long."

An 80,000-capacity crowd at the Stade de France booed the hosts as they left the field and gave a standing ovation to the All Blacks.

The crowd also greeted the visitors with a resounding ovation when they entered the arena, did not whistle during the New Zealand national anthem and nearly stayed silent when Tana Umaga led the Haka for the first time in his career.

The All Blacks captain reached a personal milestone, playing his 63rd test to move to fifth on the all-time list of All Blacks players, equalling Jonah Lomu and John Kirwan behind Sean Fitzpatrick (92), Ian Jones (79), Justin Marshall (77) and Andrew Mehrtens (70).

The game started with a goalkicking battle won by Carter, who kicked four penalties to two by Frederic Michalak in a bruising first half hour.

The battle was so fierce that France had to replace prop Sylvain Marconnet with Olivier Milloud, while centre Tony Marsh and hooker William Servat had to go to the blood bin.

Five minutes of first-half injury time were played and the All Blacks took full advantage when Kelleher caught the French napping at a lineout, broke through, and set up So'oialo for an easy try in the right corner.

Carter converted and the All Blacks went into the break 19-6 ahead.

They kept the French waiting for the restart but were quick to score a second try through flanker Collins which Carter converted.

The French then lost prop Pieter de Villiers, who was replaced by hooker Sebastien Bruno to leave the scrums uncontested.

This unusual situation did not change the course of the game as Carter scored the All Blacks' third try on the blindside and added his third conversion.

He missed the fourth one, though, after Kelleher eluded two tackles to dart into the left corner and Nonu completed the rout in the dying seconds.

- REUTERS