They have played France nine times since 2007 and have won eight, lost one. They played France not once but twice at the last World Cup and beat them in both.
They have won a World Cup since 2007 and they have been in Cardiff for six tests in the interim, winning them all. The Millennium Stadium is a genuine home away from home for them: not only have they played there more than in the last eight years than they have Dunedin and Christchurch, Dan Carter and Richie McCaw even say it is their favourite venue of all.
They have played France nine times since 2007 and have won eight, lost one. They played France not once but twice at the last World Cup and beat them in both.
Then there is the business of France looking decidedly ordinary against Ireland. Their vaunted scrum didn't turn up. Their lineout struggled. They couldn't get a sniff at the breakdown and an accountancy convention would have offered up more in the way of creativity.
Nor was this any kind of aberration. This was largely what France have offered in the last few years. Not much, not really anything at all. They have looked like the sick men of European rugby for a while now.
So the All Blacks' rational mind can be reassured this week. But the French, at World Cups, against the All Blacks, have never done anything the rational mind expected.
There were 18 teams at this tournament who didn't want to meet the All Blacks in the knockout round - not ever. And one that didn't mind. One that would actually relish it.
The French have no fear of playing the All Blacks. Somewhere within them, this mystical, magical force invades their each and every being and they can go from being abject - from losing to Argentina or Tonga - to running the All Blacks ragged in the space of a week.
This much New Zealanders know only too well. The All Blacks know it too and the French team that turned up to play Ireland won't be the one that shows for the quarterfinal.
The same players may largely be picked, but they won't really be the same players. Some will have grown an extra arm; others an extra leg. Some will have the strength of two men, others will be able to run all night when they could barely run for a half against Ireland.
French captain Thierry Dusautoir, who looked a shadow of his brilliant self against the Irish, has been here before. A few times - and he knows the drill.
"We were not very good at cleaning out and winning clean ball," he said of the 24-9 loss to Ireland. "We are all quite exhausted. Of course against New Zealand it is going to be tough they are the best team in the world. What we must do is play the best we can.
"I have played 11 or 12 times and not once were we the favourites and that didn't stop us beating them. And we nearly beat them at the last World Cup. We have to digest that - rest and recuperate. It was intense. Nobody was pretending. We need time to recharge mentally and physically and anything is possible.
"It was a different context in 2007. This is as a different team. This team has a different history and experience and enough to build within itself. We don't always need to look back to what happened eight years ago."
The French may not feel the need to look back. But New Zealanders will feel compelled. They will be drawn to history as powerfully and as inevitably as this organisers were drawn to the potential of this quarterfinal.
- Gregor Paul in Cardiff
