Dusautoir salutes fighting French

Captain Thierry Dusautoir revealed a determination to show the world some French flair inspired his side to a 19-12 victory over England and a place in the last four of the Rugby World Cup.

France had suffered stinging criticism after pool stage flops against New Zealand and Tonga but it was a different story in Saturday's quarter-final at Eden Park as they came out with all guns blazing to stun Martin Johnson's men.

Dimitri Yachvili slotted two superb penalties before Vincent Clerc and Maxime Médard went over to give Les Bleus a 16-0 half-time lead in the quarter-final.

England hit back after the interval with tries from Ben Foden and Mark Cueto either side of a French drop goal from Francois Trinh-Duc but it was too little too late.

Dusautoir said: "We didn't want to go out like this. We wanted to show how we can play rugby.

"I think we did it well. It was a great start for us and we are going to enjoy this victory. Now we need to keep it up and focus on the next game."

France took the lead on 11 minutes after inside centre Toby Flood was penalised for not releasing his man after a tackle. Yachvili stepped up to crash a majestic 45-metre penalty through the posts.

Drop goal

The French scrum half sent another long-range kick over four minutes later after England prop Matt Stevens collapsed a scrum.

Yachvili had a chance to make it three successful kicks from three when Stevens was penalised again for holding on but this time saw his effort drift wide on the right.

Right wing Clerc took advantage of slack England defending to send his team further ahead after 22 minutes, spinning past Foden before darting in to touch down. Yachvili sent his conversion attempt wide.

Full back Médard crashed over to score a second try for Les Bleus just after the half hour following good work from Morgan Parra and Alexis Palisson. Yachvili again failed to add the extras.

Full back Foden gave the English hope 15 minutes into the second half when he collected a Flood pass on the left and cut inside, dummying two French defenders in the process to cross for his side's first points.

Jonny Wilkinson banged over an easy conversion from in front of the posts to reduce the deficit to nine points.

Trinh-Duc hit back at the other end after 73 minutes when he slotted a drop goal from in front of the posts.

Cueto ensured a nail-biting finish when he scored a 77th-minute try that was given after the referee consulted the TMO. But Flood's conversion attempt flew horribly wide and the French held on for victory.

England manager Johnson said: "You can't give a good team like France 16 points of a start. We had chances in the second half but they deserved to win."