All Blacks captain Anton Oliver feared a repeat of the 1999 rugby World Cup semifinal in their one-off Test on Saturday when France started showing signs of another revival.

Lock Norm Maxwell was in the sinbin for a dangerous tackle in the second half and France tried to ram the advantage home.

They threw everything into the game, unleashing some fierce pick-and-go moves to punch holes in the All Blacks' defence. But New Zealand's last line held for a 37-12 win, with them scoring four tries to none.

``It could have all gone horribly wrong and it wouldn't have taken much,'' Oliver said on Sunday. ``Two penalties in a row or a try and they'd have been right back into that game, and it would have been a real sort of shit fight right to the end.

"I was happy with the way, when Norm was gone, we didn't concede a try. We stuck at our defence, which was basically the cornerstone of our game. We pressured them with our defence. We shut them out.

``When Norm came back on we all sort of said to ourselves, `look, we've had enough of this, let's get the ball down there and let's put the pressure back on them' because we were sort of consumed by pressure for 10-15 minutes.''

Oliver said he had clear memories about what the French did to eliminate them from the 1999 World Cup in their semifinal. ``You don't know what they were going to do. Whilst we were up nine or 10 points, a try would have changed the face of the game.

``And with the French mentality, once they get up on you, everything they do kind of sticks, it's hard to describe. And before you know it, you're under your posts.

``I was pretty aware of that and I didn't want it to happen because it's really a hard thing mentally to climb yourself back out of.

``But we managed to keep them at an arm's distance and managed something (penalty) that rather kind of put us beyond that.

``It was like hoooh! Thank goodness that's out of the way, because everything we did just didn't turn out. Lineouts weren't going, scrums weren't working, we were getting the ball and losing it back to them, we were turning the ball over from them and turning it back to them.

"It was just like - you just have to accept it was
one of those periods. The bottom line was survival in the pure sense.''

Oliver said he was happy with the team's progress this season after three wins, including those over Samoa and Argentina.

``After each Test I think we've grown another leg,'' he said. ``Last night against a very, very good French team, who have been through a long, hard season, we won comprehensively.

``But it could have gone either way in the second half. It wouldn't have taken much either. We managed to get past that and managed to put a few tries around them which maybe was a bit flattering in the end.'' -Sapa-NZPA