Philippe Saint-Andre demands more from France

France will have to dig deep if they are to overcome the daunting prospect of holders New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, according to coach Philippe Saint-Andre.

After three impressive victories to open their campaign in Pool D, France suffered a disappointing 24-9 loss against Ireland last time out, a result that left them in the path of the All Black juggernaut.

New Zealand dominate their head-to-head meetings with Les Bleus but France were triumphant in their last meeting in 2013, and have beaten them twice at the World Cup before.

The most recent of those wins came at the 2007 World Cup when France recorded a 20-18 quarter-final win at the Millennium Stadium " the venue for Saturday's encounter, which comes at the same stage of this year's event.

However, Saint-Andre knows it will take a huge effort to produce a repeat performance.

"When you play against New Zealand, you have to dig deeper in your resources and to get into a trance," he said.

"We have a couple of days left to find this additional soul, generosity, craziness, mischief and intelligence to have our opponents losing their self-confidence.

"We've been training since the rugby school to play matches like this.

"If we want to beat New Zealand, we will have to play the French way. We're getting ready for a massive battle."