France: Preparing to face New Zealand

France have arrived in the final on the back of pool phase defeats against the All Blacks and Tonga.

And although they beat an out-of-sorts England, Les Bleus could only scrape past semi-final rivals Wales 9-8 despite their opponents having skipper Sam Warburton sent off.

The bookmakers are widely predicting a one-sided final - perhaps more so than at any other time in World Cup history - but France have beaten the All Blacks four times in New Zealand since 1979.

And they also knocked them out of the 1999 and 2007 World Cup tournaments, results that France defence coach Ellis feels cannot be dismissed.

"There are occasions in major sporting events, particularly when teams are involved, that there is always something in the back of their mind - deja vu," he said.

"I am looking forward to all the players responding to the pressure.

"We have had several conversations - myself and some of the players - and we are keen to look at it the opposite way around.

"We are keen to see what will happen to certain players on the All Blacks team if we do manage to keep them under continued pressure.

"What are the signs we can look for, like in 2007? What are the signs that will start opening doors for us in the mental battle?"

New Zealand will be without their fly-half superstar Dan Carter, whose tournament-ending groin injury suffered three weeks ago means youngster Aaron Cruden has been thrust in at the deep end.

It is another factor that Ellis hopes France can exploit.

"He (Carter) is the best number 10 in the world, and he can just see things and take it upon himself to create it," Ellis added.

"When he left the field in 2007 (World Cup quarter-final in Cardiff), that was one of the major factors in the game.

"It was a major turning point in the psychological part of the game.

"The All Blacks have different defensive systems, and there are more weaknesses than we found in the Welsh system and also in the Australian system. We feel there are certain areas of their defence we can exploit.

"We have mentioned the 2007 quarter-final in Cardiff, and in terms of the French defence there were 47 phases of play New Zealand had and we never gave them the lead.

"So the French team is quite capable of doing it. They have done it on numerous occasions against different countries, and it will be the number one factor whether we can withstand the All Blacks on Sunday."

Yorkshireman Ellis, Les Bleus' defence coach, knows France cannot leave anything in the tank with regards to the effort they will have to mount.

"We have to make sure we put the wall up and stop them from getting through," he said.

"We also need to be going forward, putting the half-backs under pressure, not only with our attack but with our defence. We have to make them stall, and if we do that then we can add pressure from both sides - in attack and defence.

"There has been a lot more consistency on our defence as players get used to working with each other under pressure.

"It is in difficult times that you tend to build the strength in the group, and what we have gone through will take us into the game with some mental force."