France have bolted to a 36-0 shutout win over Canada at Auckland's Eden Park to claim the bronze medal at the Rugby World Cup.
Les Bleues ran in five tries, while their vaunted defence proved impenetrable, preventing Canada from creating any genuine scoring opportunities to close out the biggest winning margin for a third-fourth playoff in Cup history.
The third-place finish is France's seventh at the tournament, offering some consolation, after their heartbreaking defeat to the hosts last weekend to be denied a place in the final.
Dynamo halfback Pauline Bourdon was outstanding for France, playing a part in a few of their tries and scoring one herself, while wing Marine Menager bagged a brace.
"We are so happy about this medal," said Gabrielle Vernier. "It was a very difficult week after last week and we put our hearts on the field, we put everything out there.
"We had a really good defence throughout the competition - it was our trademark - and I hope we will do better in attack in competitions ahead."
First-five Caroline Drouin made some amends for her last-minute penalty miss last week with 11 points from the tee in an almost faultless display of place-kicking.
Canada were the only semi-finalists without full professional contracts and should take some pride from taking top-ranked England close in last week's semi-finals.
"We weren't good enough today, credit to France," said Canada captain Sophie De Goede. "We came here to win a World Cup and we fell short of that, so we're disappointed, but hopefully it'll be a good building block for the future."
France were the first to cross the chalk, hammering away at the line through their forwards, before Massadou Fall punished the back-peddling defence and powered over to open the scoring in the 12th minute.
Drouin's penalty extended their lead, before Gabrielle Vernier's clean break through the midfield ended in Bourdon going in under the black dot.
First-five Caroline Drouin made some amends for her miss last week with 11 points from the tee in an almost faultless display of place-kicking.
Canada were the only one of the semi-finalists without full professional contracts and should take some pride from taking top-ranked England close in last week's semi-finals.
"We weren't good enough today, credit to France," said Canada captain Sophie De Goede.
"We came here to win a World Cup and we fell short of that so we're disappointed, but hopefully it'll be a good building block for the future."
France were the first to cross the chalk, hammering away at the line through their forwards, before Massadou Fall punished the back-peddling defence and powered over to open the scoring in the 12th minute.
Drouin's penalty extended their lead, before Gabrielle Vernier's clean break through the midfield ended in Bourdon going in under the black dot.
On the stroke of halftime, Bourdon sparked another raid down the blindside, finding Drouin in support with a slick inside ball, with Menager marauding down the left flank to finish in the corner.
That late try gave France a daunting 22-0 halftime advantage, leaving the Canadians a mountain to climb.
They had to be the first to score in the second stanza and they weren't. Instead, France extended their burgeoning lead, courtesy of prop Annaelle Deshaye, who snuck through from a ruck at close range just three minutes into the half.
Menager rain in her second try on the 60-minute mark, after some persistent French attack ended with a simple catch-and-pass overlap out wide.
Canada worked their way into better field position later in the second half, but the suffocating French defence refused to crack, forcing errors to quickly kill off any raid.
Even after Vernier was shown a yellow card for a high tackle, the Canadians couldn't find their way to the chalk, as the French emphatically snapped their four-game losing streak against the North Americans.
The defending champion Black Ferns take on tournament favourites England for the trophy in the final at Eden Park later on Saturday.
France 36 (Fall, Bourdon, Menager 2, Deshaye tries; Drouin 4 conversions & penalty) Canada 0
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