The All Blacks hate playing against French captain Thierry Dusautoir because he tackles them out of the game.
Dusautoir (27) sent the All Blacks packing with his fierce tackling at the World Cup in 2007 and repeated the dose at Carisbrook on Saturday night.
The softly spoken engineering graduate led by example and kept the French positive when the All Blacks came back at them.
"It was very tough," Dusautoir said.
"We were very nervous before the match but we gave our all and won. We are very proud.
"Our defence was good but we also scored three tries, which is very important against the All Blacks. We are going to enjoy this victory and prepare again for next week."
Dusautoir said the win was important for French rugby.
"We did not worry about the All Blacks and just concentrated on our own game in the first 20 minutes," he said.
"But we did put doubts into their game.
"There have been quite a few rule changes and that is why the All Blacks were hesitant at the start."
He was not worried when the All Blacks came back strongly and scored eight points just before half-time.
"The break came at the right time for us," he said.
"It gave us time to regroup.
"We lost a bit of confidence in the middle, but I was always confident that we would win after Maxime Medard's runaway try."
Veteran French strongman Sebastien Chabal came off the bench to play his 48th test match.
"Every win is good," Chabal said.
"But you don't beat the All Blacks every week, especially in New Zealand.
"We still have two games to go on tour, against the All Blacks and Australia, and we have to stay focused.
"It was a perfect start today and it will build our confidence. But if we don't play well we could lose by 60 points at Wellington. It will be a tough game and anything can happen."
Chabal (31) believed the win was important for French rugby.
"We haven't won here for 15 years. It is always fantastic to beat the All Blacks. It is massive for us. We were only average in the Six Nations and we've had a long season.
"When we have the chance to play the All Blacks, nothing else matters. We just want to beat them.
"We can win again on Saturday if we stay in the game for the first 30 minutes and don't make too many mistakes. But I don't want to be too confident."
