France captain Thierry Dusautoir denied his team-mates revolted against current head coach Philippe Saint-Andre ahead of Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against New Zealand.

Reports on Thursday claimed Dusautoir and other senior players had effectively sidelined coach Saint-Andre and taken over the management of the team ahead of their clash with the All Blacks at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

However, Dusautoir claimed to not understand "what everyone is talking about" when asked about the reports on Friday's press conference at Celtic Manor.

"We prepared for this game as a team," said Dusautoir. "That is all of the boys, all of the coaches and the manager so it is a team that is ready to play New Zealand. I don't understand what everyone is talking about here. We are a team and we will continue our work as a team."

French newspaper L'obs Sport claimed players had been "discreetly dismissing" Saint-Andre's instructions while assistant Serge Blanco is seen as a "destabilising influence".

The outlet also reported that a source close to the players said: "A large majority of the team complains about the lack of charisma of PSA [Saint-Andre]. They view him as a good guy, as a former great player but not as a leader of men. Some go for the match against the All Blacks with leaden feet, already beaten."

It's a bizarre situation for Saint-Andre as both he and the team know he will be gone at the end of this tournament, with former Toulouse coach Guy Noves already confirmed as his successor.

The French have previous in usurping their coach after player-power took them to the final of the 2011 competition. Marc Lievremont was sidelined by the players with veteran No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy later admitting: "After the defeat against Tonga [in the 2011 pool stages], I did not attach too much importance to what Marc said. We had to free ourselves from his supervision."

Saint-Andre perhaps tempted fate earlier in the week when he said his players needed to find some mischief ahead of their match this weekend. "When you play against New Zealand, you have to dig deeper in your resources and 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."

Additional reporting by Tom Hamilton.