France fizzled out of the World Cup with woeful back-to-back performances as the tournament's early frontrunners lost their legs at the business end of the tournament.

Until last week's semi-final loss to England, France set the standard with brilliant attacking flair and decisive forward power.

Les Bleus were less than ordinary, and, like their performance against England, lacked cohesion continually kicking the ball away as New Zealand walloped it 40-13 in the play-off for third.

Coach Bernard Laporte admitted his team peaked a game too early signalling the first 40 minutes of their quarter-final against Ireland as the team's pinnacle where they were up 27-0 at the break.

"There were times when we didn't play so well, but there were times when we played fantastically like against the Irish in the first half," Laporte said of their World Cup.

"If we had been able to play like that through the tournament we were capable of making the final and winning, but it wasn't the case.

"We think we have had a very good World Cup, we made the semi-finals and we played some great rugby en-route."

Laporte, whose team's attacking flair turned into a wet mop in their 24-7 loss to England in torrential rain, was left ruing lost opportunities.

"We thought we could have beaten the English," he said.

"We thought we had the team for that and here we are in fourth place which brings us nothing from the World Cup."

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