France captain Thierry Dusautoir was forced to deny reports in the French media on Friday that the team had ostracised head coach Philippe Saint-Andre in the lead-up to Saturday's clash with the world champions.
Talks of rifts in the France squad are a regular feature of World Cup campaigns, however, and Foster said holders New Zealand were paying no notice at all.
"We're expecting the French team to be very, very fired up to be at Cardiff, it's obviously a goal of theirs, that they've shown before, that they can rise to the big occasion," he told reporters at the Millennium Stadium.
"We're expecting the best of them and that's been the focus of our preparations all week."
The clash to determine which of the teams plays Wales or South Africa in the semi-finals is a rematch of the 2011 World Cup final, in which the All Blacks edged a determined French side 8-7 in Auckland.
New Zealand have famously not always had their own way against the French at rugby's showpiece tournament, however, and were defeated in the knockout stages of the 1999 and 2007 World Cups.
The astonishing 20-18 upset in 2007 also came in the quarter-finals at Cardiff and was the last defeat New Zealand suffered in a World Cup match.
There have not been many losses in any tests for New Zealand in the intervening eight years and Richie McCaw suggested the lessons learned from that night had served the All Blacks well.
"Eight years ago is a long time and there's been plenty of rugby played since then," the All Blacks captain told reporters.
"There's only a couple of us played that day but I know for myself, disappointing day as that was, it's perhaps shaped the eight years since.
"Those days are the ones where you learn a few lessons (but) really not a lot of thought goes back that far, except acknowledging how tough quarter-finals are."
The experience of such a gut-wrenching defeat has certainly not soured McCaw to the Millennium Stadium as a venue.
"The Millennium Stadium's one of the best places to play rugby," he added.
"I've experienced the atmosphere over the years and I expect tomorrow to be exactly the same. Plenty of noise from the Kiwis would be great."
(Editing by Justin Palmer)
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