New Zealand captain Richie McCaw was delighted with the way his team performed in the emphatic 62-13 defeat of France in the World Cup quarterfinal in Cardiff.

Julian Savea scored a hat-trick of tries at the Millennium Stadium as New Zealand booked a World Cup last-eight showdown with South Africa.

Lock Brodie Retallick sparked the nine-try rout and Nehe Milner-Skudder, Jerome Kaino and Kieran Read all crossed before Tawera Kerr-Barlow stole a late brace.

"I'm very happy. The intensity was always going to go up a notch and we talked about it all week about needing to be up a notch," McCaw told ITV Sport. "I am just proud of the guys, especially at the start of the game, we got on to it and applied pressure right around the field.

"I am happy with the performance, but all it has done is earn us another week and I'm excited about that, but we won't get ahead of ourselves."

McCaw said the defending champions had not thought too much about 2007, when they lost a quarterfinal 20-18 to France in the same stadium.

"We have said it all week, we never really thought much about it," he added.

Nehe Milner-Skudder breaks through the French defence to score his side's second try © Getty Images

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"You realise that the intensity of a quarter-final is up a level and we knew that without having to think back too far, so we prepared as such this week and put a performance together like that tonight.

"It's another step, but we haven't done anything yet, all we've done is earn another week." New Zealand coach Steve Hansen added: "It was a very pleasing performance and everyone from number one to 23 played their part."

Referring to 2007, Hansen said: "We've just got a wee monkey off the back."

On the semi-final meeting with South Africa, he added: "We can't wait. We're playing against great opposition in South Africa. They are a great team and we enjoy their company and we will enjoy playing them."

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre was asked about the negative reaction of French supporters to his team's performance.

He said: "Of course they are disappointed. I think we did the maximum, we tried and today New Zealand were much better than us.

"We worked hard for the last three months to be in this World Cup but each time we made a mistake New Zealand punished us. When the result is like this you have nothing to say and just congratulate New Zealand."