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Grey Day: The dream is over for New Zealand
New Zealand coach Graham Henry paid France handsome praise after seeing two years of work go up in smoke in Cardiff on Saturday.
France upset the odds in dramatic style to come from behind and beat the red-hot World Cup favourites 20-18 at the Millennium Stadium by summoning up the spirits of that semi-final at Twickenham in 1999.
France now face old rivals England, who earlier beat Australia 12-10 in equally dramatic style, in next Saturday's semi-finals whilst the All Blacks join the Wallabies at the airport.
"Of course we're disappointed but that's sport," said Henry.
"But I'm proud of the players. No, we didn't play as well as before, but the French were strong in defence.
"It's fair to say that the best team won. That was the best French team we have faced for years.
"People will judge me as they see fit but I feel comfortable that I've done everything I can.
"Obviously the World Cup is the pinnacle. We gave it our best shot and it wasn't good enough.
"I just feel for the guys, who have spent a huge amount of time preparing for this. It's not the time to think about the future at the moment."
The All Blacks coughed up a 13-0 lead on the way to defeat, and skipper Richie McCaw could not put words to his feelings in the wake of the shock defeat.
"I'm lost for words," said the crestfallen flank.
"We always knew they could come back in the second half, but we lost our composure. I thought we could get it back, but it wasn't to be.
"We went out there to play our best but we were not allowed to play our best because of a good French team.
"I thought the boys were ready to play today.
"We were beaten by the better team. Some guys probably played last games for the All Blacks and that hurts as well.
"I'm at a loss to explain why we didn't put our game together as we would have liked.
"We said we had to score first in the second half but we didn't do that and the French lifted."
