Lièvremont keeps the faith

France will prepare for their quarter-final with the booing of their fans still ringing in their ears after an embarrassing 19-14 loss to homeward-bound Tonga in their Pool A match at Wellington Regional Stadium.

That is unless Canada beat New Zealand by a record score on Sunday, in which case France would join Tonga at the airport, rather than be the first team since Fiji in 1987 to go through to the knockout stage after losing two pool matches.

October 1 could well become a new national holiday in the Kingdom of Tonga (population 104,000) after they rode a red wave of support to batter France (population 62 million) into submission.

However, France coach Marc Lièvremont was keeping the faith, saying the important thing was Les Bleus had qualified for the quarter-final, albeit though a "bitter qualification".

"We are alive, we are still part of this adventure and I still want to fight. And I believe my players want to fight," he told a post-match news conference.

"Some words have a really strong meaning: pride, solidarity and sincerity, and in the coming week I'll be insisting on these values.

Relax and focus

"I trust my players, I want them to fight better and be more accurate. I want them to relax and focus on these values because I trust them. Anyway, we have no choice."

Asked whether it might benefit him and his players to go out and get drunk, he replied: "I have never been against a few beers. That's a possible option."

Tonga's first-half try-scorer Sukanaivalu Hufanga went from hero to villain when the wing was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle.

However, France were unable to take advantage of the overlap, to the dismay and anger of their fans.

Their only try came in overtime when a wide raid found wing Vincent Clerc with enough space to squeeze into the corner.

Tonga captain Finau Maka was forced to retire just after half-time a bloodied warrior, with a cut under his eye and cotton wool stuffed up his nose.

Ecstatic fans

Isitola Maka, the Tonga coach, spoke for his brother and the team at the post-match press conference in thanking their loyal and ecstatic fans.

"I just want to take my hat off to all the fans who turned up and supported us through to the end.

"In Tonga right now they're going crazy and I think we're going to get a lot of support in Auckland tomorrow (on their way home)."

Isitola Maka was philosophical about the missed opportunity when the team lost 25-20 to Canada.

"If we'd won against Canada, then maybe we would have taken it easy (afterwards). It really helped us when we lost to Canada. We have played well against Japan and again tonight. We can't complain now. It's all done and dusted.

"I have a lot of respect for the French team ... but tonight they didn't really turn up."