Steve McNamara labelled his England side's performance in their World Cup quarter-final win over France "substandard" and told them they need to raise their game to avoid a last-four heartbreak next week.

France were beaten 34-6 at Wigan's DW Stadium in a game that was over by half-time as England ran in four opening-period tries against Richard Agar's men.

But a comfortable interval lead failed to trigger the second-half show it should have against a France side which lost two players in the opening five minutes, leaving England with more questions than answers heading into their Wembley showdown with New Zealand next Saturday.

The Kiwis have swept all before them en route to the national stadium, scoring 186 points, while England on Saturday looked patchy against a side who bow out of the tournament with three tries to their name from four outings.

And for McNamara, a fierce defender of his players, the time came to throw down the gauntlet.

"It very, very scratchy, probably our worst performance," he said.

"There have been positive things from our last three games but tonight we looked like we didn't play with a fear of the opposition. That didn't help and we put in a very substandard performance.

McNamara's claim that England were poor because they did not fear France was somewhat odd considering he praised their group-stage win over Ireland - another fixture they were expected to win with something to spare.

"In the previous three games we have played we have shown how good a side we can be," he added.

"If we needed a reminder, a wake-up call... We aren't a team that can have players not quite at the races. We need every player to contribute all the time to be good. The second-half error count was one of the highest I have seen and the harder we tried the worse we got.

"No disrespect to France but our team play better with an element of fear in the back of their minds. I'm not quite sure we felt that tonight, but there is no massive drama here, no concern for me."

England had at least looked on song in a first-half show which saw them run in four tries in 17 minutes - two apiece for wingers Josh Charnley and Ryan Hall - but even that did not fool their coach.

"Even at that stage as a coach I could sense we weren't on the mark and the timing wasn't right," he said.

"We scored some tries with some nice play but we have been in rhythm with each other far better in this tournament. It was a disappointing performance."

McNamara's belief that England lacked a big-match mentality owing to facing a side they knew they could beat was shared by captain Kevin Sinfield.

"I think we lacked intensity, we weren't good enough and in the changing rooms we are all thoroughly disappointed. It wasn't pretty but we have a big week ahead," he said.

For France the night summed up their tournament. They secured a last-eight spot with a 9-8 win over Papua New Guinea in their first group game - a clash coach Agar admitted they could have lost - and they have sadly been found wanting close to the line.

They muscled-up admirably in the second half, albeit when the game was gone, and Agar accepted that they had been undone by a lack of class.

"We pulled them apart a few times but weren't good enough to finish them off. Pride and courage can only take you so far and the other team had a lot more skill than us," said Agar, who now heads back to fight the fires of Wakefield's rapidly shrinking squad.

"They had a crack but we lost two blokes in the first 10 minutes and that was always going to affect us. I thought we dug in well but the 20 minutes in the first half when we didn't touch the ball, that's where the points were scored and we lost the game."

Agar has not spoken to the French Federation about continuing in the role but says he would be happy to if all parties could agree.

He did, however, stress that his Friday prediction that England could win the World Cup was depending on a lot of factors and not necessarily if they played like they did against his men.

"I still believe they can win, but I would suggest you would have the other two, Australia and New Zealand, down as favourites," he said.