French skipper Fabien Galthié announced his retirement from Test rugby after his side were dumped out of the World Cup by England on Sunday.
The 34-year-old scrum-half told French television that he would not be playing in the third place play off against New Zealand on Thursday.
Galthié, who led France to the 1999 World Cup final, was expected to quit after the Tournament.
But the Stade Francais star made the announcement without telling either French manager Jo Maso or coach Bernard Laporte.
"We had heard that Fabien had discussed it with his best friends on the team, so the fact he announced he wouldn't be playing on Thursday wasn't a surprise," said Maso.
Well earned
"In any case we always told Fabien that he had earned the right because of his enormous contribution to French rugby to decide himself when it was right to call it a day."
Maso insisted French rugby owed a debt of gratitude to Galthié, France's most-capped scrum half with 64 international appearances.
He also competed in four World Cups and led France to the 2002 Six Nations championship, earning the International Rugby Board's player of the year.
"I doff my cap to Fabien," said Maso. "We must respect Fabien's decision and it is a measure of the man that he said he could have another cap [to make it 65] but decided to give up his place.
"He has played at the highest level for over 10 years and has had some terrible moments during that time, particularly with a knee injury, but he always came back stronger.
"The tougher the match the better he was. It was our honour to spend the past four months with him and with him goes a lot of qualities both sporting and human."
Maso admitted that Galthié could return in some form to the French set-up.
"Both Bernard and I have told Fabien that the door is always open and we will always listen to any ideas he might have or if he wants to talk to us about any future role he might like to play," he said.