Second-half tries from Damian Penaud and Melvyn Jaminet as well as 17 points from boot of full-back Thomas Ramos saw France overcome the All Blacks in the much-anticipated tournament opener at the Stade de France.

New Zealand could not have got off to a better start when Mark Telea crossed inside the first 90 seconds, but they were unable to kick on as they suffered their first-ever defeat in the pool stages.

The All Blacks came flying out of the traps when Rieko Ioane powered through a hole in France’s defence to send his team on the attack.

With space opening up on the left wing, Beauden Barrett produced a perfectly-weighted cross-field kick for Telea to simply dot down for a try.

France responded with two three-pointers from Ramos to edge 6-5 ahead on the 20-minute mark.

Richie Mo’unga and Ramos then traded penalties as France held a 9-8 lead at half-time.

Like the start of the match, France were caught napping at the beginning of the second period as Telea seized his opportunity.

Mo’unga found Telea with a floated pass before the New Zealand wing finished to put his side back in front.

Penaud looked destined to go over in the corner on 52 minutes only to be denied by a superb try-scoring tackle from Mo’unga.

It could have been a decisive moment in the match but France responded brilliantly as Penaud received the ball in a similar position three minutes later before making no mistake on this occasion.

Ramos added the extras before landing two more penalties to move further clear of New Zealand.

Victory was then sealed in the closing two minutes when Jaminet rose high to gather a chip from replacement scrum-half Maxime Lucu before going over for France’s second try.

"The fact is they had won all of their 31 [previous] pool games," said France coach Fabien Galthié in a report by the Associated Press.

"We've ticked a box."

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with Italy taking on Namibia, Ireland facing Romania, Australia tackling Georgia and England going up against Argentina.