France laboured to a 41-18 bonus-point victory over a plucky Canada in Group D on Thursday to move to the brink of the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

Having already beaten Italy and Romania, Les Bleus made it three from three at Stadium MK but it was a far from fluent performance from Philippe Saint-Andre's men.

France - who made 12 changes - were in control thanks to tries from Wesley Fofana and Guilhem Guirado, only for sloppy play to allow Canada back into the match through quick-fire scores from DTH van der Merwe and Aaron Carpenter.

It appeared as though Rabah Slimani's try shortly before the break would reassert France's dominance, but Canada made them toil before Pascal Pape and debutant Remy Grosso added gloss to the scoreline.

Saint-Andre will know his team have to improve for their crucial final pool match against Ireland, though, with the group's runners-up almost certain to face world champions New Zealand in the quarter-finals.

France's first try came in just the fourth minute. Frederic Michalak shrugged off a couple of weak Canada challenges before brilliantly offloading to Fofana, who held off Matt Evans to finish the move.

A Michalak penalty stretched France's lead and saw him overtake Thierry Lacroix as his country's leading points scorer at the World Cup.

Fofana then failed to gather Michalak's clever dink, but France did extend their advantage on the half-hour mark as Guirado touched down from a rolling maul.

Canada hit back with a score of their own, though. Ciaran Hearn beat Grosso too easily in the air and the ball was worked left where Van der Merwe crossed for his third try of the tournament.

Canada then scored again in the 34th minute as Kyle Gilmour was held up before the whitewash when he should have played in Phil Mackenzie, but Carpenter picked up and stretched over the line anyway.

France responded strongly and Slimani was the beneficiary of a well-worked five-metre line-out.

But Canada did not panic and they frustrated France in the second half, their efforts resulting in two Nathan Hirayama penalties which brought the deficit to within six points.

Three points from Michalak's boot calmed French nerves, but the fourth try was hard to come by - Evan Olmstead and Hearn combining to prevent powerhouse Mathieu Bastareaud on the line.

Canada's resistance was broken in the 66th minute, though, as Pape just stretched over the line to put the game beyond reach.

Nanyak Dala was then sent to the sin-bin for Canada, and the numerical advantage paid dividends when Grosso scored his first France try on the left flank in the closing stages to leave Les Bleus top of the pool.