Half-back Dan Carter inspired New Zealand to a seven-try 47-3 demolition of France at the Stade Gerland as the home side were punished for a string of errors by the rampant All Blacks.
Carter finished with 17 points as he passed the 500-point Test milestone, including a well worked try just before the break, while Sitiveni Sivivatu, Richie McCaw, Conrad Smith, Joe Rokocoko and Luke McAlister all crossed for the All Blacks.
Florian Fritz struck a solitary drop goal for the home side midway through the first half.
Sivivatu opened the scoring with a fifth-minute try after breaking two tackles to touchdown following good work from Carter and the New Zealand line.
Carter missed the conversion attempt but hit successive penalties, either side of Fritz’s drop goal.
Carter’s second three-pointer, which came after home skipper Pelous was sidelined for a mid-air challenge on Rodney So’oialo from a restart, saw him bring up the 500.
New Zealand failed to capitalise on the power play, but did score through McCaw at short range within seconds of Pelous’ return.
Carter pulled the conversion wide, but the All Blacks managed to add to their lead before half-time as France lost possession at a scrum and in the resulting melee MaCaw stormed forward upto the line before the ball was recycled and Weepu sent Carter over for another score.
Carter landed the extra points to hand the All Blacks a 20-point lead at the break before the All Blacks put any thought of a recovery beyond doubt in the first quarter-hour of the second half.
First, Smith ran 70 metres to cross under the posts after Ali Williams scooped the ball up from French lineout error.
France again made a total mess of their line-out and the All Blacks capitalised.
Carter put McAlister into space and he slipped a sublime reverse pass to winger Rokocoko, who slid over in the corner before the conversion extended the lead to 37-3 seven minutes before the hour mark.
Sivivatu further extended the supremacy with 10 minutes to go and McAlister made amends for the missed conversion as he finished off a driving run down the left flank with moments remaining.
France were left to rue their mistakes and will look for an improved performance next Saturday in Paris.
