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Wellington - New Zealand media on Monday applauded the "awesome" All Blacks' demolition of RWC bogey team France and said the tournament favourite were gaining momentum heading into the knockout stages.
But amid the back-slapping there were also warnings that All Blacks' supporters should not get carried away with the 37-17 victory, given the team's long history of choking at the RWC.
The Dominion Post said New Zealand's performance against France, a team which has twice ousted the All Blacks from the tournament, "sent reverberations around the rugby world".
"Awesome All Blacks bury French hoodoo," one headline in the newspaper's sports section trumpeted, while another, above a story citing overseas pundits, declared: "The World Cup is as good as theirs."
New Zealand Herald columnist Bevan Rapson said the All Blacks' win over their World Cup nemesis would settle nerves within the team and vindicated coaching decisions such as dropping Mils Muliaina at fullback in favour of Israel Dagg.
He said the All Blacks "turned the French roosters into feather dusters" but also warned the result must be kept in perspective.
"It was only a pool game, the path to the final is still strewn with banana skins... whatever happened to the roosters on Saturday, history has shown us not to count our chickens," Rapson wrote.
Television commentator Keith Quinn said the win would lift the New Zealand team's self-belief after uninspiring performances in the first pool matches.
"It's a boost in confidence," he told Radio New Zealand.
"In the matches against Tonga and Japan there were flashes of excellent point scoring but there were flaws in the performance.
"Whereas this was against a top-ranked world team and they played with great authority... it augers well for post-pool play."
