New Zealand 54–6 France — Quarter-final, 2000 Rugby League World Cup
12 Nov 2000 · Mend-a-Hose Jungle, Castleford, England · Attendance: 5,158
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Quarter-final, 2000 Rugby League World Cup: New Zealand 54–6 France, at Mend-a-Hose Jungle, Castleford, England on 12 Nov 2000.
Scorers
| New Zealand | Tries: Hunter-Paul (3); Blackmore; Jellick; Kearney; Pongia; Rua; Smith; Talau Goals: Paul (7) |
| France | Tries: Sirvent Goals: Banquet (1) |
This result sent New Zealand into the Semi-final against England.
Teams
| New Zealand | France | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richie Barnett (c) | Fullback | Frederic Banquet | 1 |
| 2 | Brian Jellick | Wing | Jean-Marc Garcia | 2 |
| 3 | Richie Blackmore | Centre | Jean-Emmanuel Cassin | 3 |
| 4 | Willie Talau | Centre | Arnaud Dulac | 4 |
| 5 | Nigel Vagana | Wing | Claude Sirvent | 5 |
| 6 | Henry Paul | Stand off/Five eighth | Fabien Devecchi (c) | 6 |
| 7 | Robbie Hunter-Paul | Scrum half/Half back | Julien Rinaldi | 7 |
| 8 | Craig Smith | Prop forward | Rachid Hechiche | 8 |
| 9 | Richard Swain | Hooker | Vincent Wulf | 9 |
| 10 | Quentin Pongia | Prop forward | Jason Sands | 10 |
| 11 | Matt Rua | Second row | Jerome Guisset | 11 |
| 12 | Stephen Kearney | Second row | Gael Tallec | 12 |
| 13 | Logan Swann | Loose forward/Lock forward | Pascal Jampy | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Nathan Cayless | David Despin | 14 | |
| 15 | Joe Vagana | Laurent Carrasco | 15 | |
| 16 | Ruben Wiki | Romain Sort | 16 | |
| 17 | Tonie Carroll | Frederic Teixido | 17 | |
| Frank Endacott | Coach | Gilles Dumas | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Bill Harrigan — single-sourced |
| Player of the match | Not confirmed to Tier-1 standard |
Match report
New Zealand ran in ten tries to thrash France 54-6 at Castleford, leading 30-0 at half-time behind a Robbie Hunter-Paul hat-trick, to set up a semi-final against England.
Previous World Cup meetings
- 1954 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 22–13 New Zealand
- 1957 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 14–10 New Zealand
- 1960 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 0–9 New Zealand
- 1968 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): New Zealand 10–15 France
- 1970 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 15–16 New Zealand
- 1972 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 20–9 New Zealand
- 1975 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): New Zealand 27–0 France
- 1975 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 12–12 New Zealand
- 1977 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): New Zealand 28–20 France
- 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 0–22 New Zealand
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): France 0–34 New Zealand
- 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup (World Cup Table): New Zealand 32–10 France
- 2013 Rugby League World Cup (Group B): New Zealand 48–0 France