Playing the hosts in any competition is incredibly tough.

It means that you're not only playing the opposition, but the crowd as well.

In the case of Thursday afternoon's men's water polo match between Australia and France, that meant 5,000 rabid supporters creating a brutally hostile environment.

The only way to do it is to silence the crowd.

It's easier said than done.

From the moment Antoine Dupont led the French sevens team to a stunning gold medal across the road at the Stade de France, right through to Léon Marchand's improbable heroics in the pool on Wednesday night, the French support has been whipping itself into a frenzied mass of patriotism.

So when Australia's Sharks took to the pool against Les Bleus, they knew they would be up against it.

"We knew it was going to be a big game, and that was special," Chaz Poot told the Olympic Information Service afterwards.

"It was crazy, but I think a lot of us thrived off it."

Thrive off it, they did.

The Aussies produced two huge defensive blocks in the French's first possession, while Nic Porter made the first of his 11 saves to stop the hosts from capitalising on a man-up attacking situation.

"We wanted to embrace the atmosphere," Poot said.

"We're not used to playing big games like this in Australia. So it's nice to have that crowd."

Embrace it, they did.

The Aussies won their second straight victory at the Games, overcoming some pre-match nerves after their Serbia heroics last time out to give themselves every chance of making the knockout rounds.

And the Aussies absolutely loved it. 

Porter, typically a remonstrative and visible goalkeeper relished every save he made, holding the French goalless through the opening term.

"It's pretty crazy," the affable Queenslander told ABC Sport.

"I mean, the noise is pretty deafening when when the goal goes in against us. But look, that's the beautiful thing about sport and about the Olympic Games.

"It's not very often you get the chance to play against the home nation and it's just fantastic to see so many people supporting water polo in person here in Paris. 

"Obviously we know there's loads of people back home and around the world cheering our side on. 

It was yet another significant match for Porter. 

Milos Maksimovic, who scored three goals, described his goalkeeper's performance as "amazing", but it was another superb all-round team effort that saw the Aussies win a second successive game at these Olympics.

Whenever France scored the noise was extraordinary — the ear-splitting roar and thundering of feet in the stands leaving no doubt how engaged the supporters were.

Goals from Maksimovic, Matthew Byrnes and Blake Edwards on the stroke of half-time ensured the Sharks held a narrow 4-3 lead at the switch of ends.

But after that break, the Sharks cut loose.

Jacob Mercep, Maksimovic and Luke Pavillard scored three quick goals to subdue the raucous crowd and push the Aussies into a 7-3, a four-goal buffer that had the home support silently contemplating defeat.

That was until two quick goals before the final break from Ugo Crousillat and Emil Bjorch had the crowd roaring again.

That momentum shift was enormous.

The Aussies had Marcus Berehulak and Lachlan Edwards fouled out of the game and what had been a comfortable lead halved.

The French had come back, and so had the crowd.

When Alexandre Bouet pushed home a third French goal in a row soon after the final break, it felt like the tidal wave of noise that was cascading down the stands, past the sinuous wooden roof would bring the French back level.

Maksimovic scored to briefly arrest the slide, but the French continued to come, another man-up goal reducing the deficit to just one.

This was where the crowd came into their own, bellowing and hollering at the Aussies, who suddenly seemed to shrink back a little, pounded down by the deluge of passion raining down on them.

Then, as the French tried to work another back-post play, Blake Edwards was fouled out and conceded a penalty.

Cometh the hour, cometh Nic Porter.

"Something that I love is a penalty situation," Porter said.

"Because there's no pressure on the goalkeeper, right?

"[French penalty-taker] Tom [Vernoux] is one of the best players in the world, so I was thinking he's probably gonna score here.

"I thought I'd just make myself as big as possible, throw my arms low and fortunately he shot the ball into my arms.

"You know, maybe 99 times out of 100, he scores that. So it's just one of those lucky situations that I'm very grateful for."

There is nothing like a penalty save to kill an atmosphere, and a comeback. But the tension in the arena remained extraordinarily high.

Australia missed a man-up scoring chance, causing the crowd to roar once more with deafening volume.

Then, France were penalised offensively on their next possession. Bitter, painfully silent response from the crowd.

The ebbs and flows of the game were being so closely matched by the feeling in the stands that it was impossible not to be swept into the current.

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Both teams, at 1-1 in the tournament, knew how important this win was in helping their chances of making the final.

With 73 seconds to go, France earned a man-up situation. The noise level ramped up another notch. This was close to the game being on the line.

The shot came in amidst a crescendo of noise. It missed, glancing off the crossbar as Porter's huge wingspan made the goal look an impossibly tight target to hit. 

Then Australia went up the pool, Poot winning a foul outside seven metres and scoring to make the game safe with 24 seconds remaining.

There was still time for Charlie Negus to be fouled out, and for France to score with just six seconds remaining, but not enough for them to find an equaliser.

"We knew it [was] going to be a hard game against France here in Paris, but we believed in ourselves," Maksimovic told OIS.

"We know how hard we worked for this. I think we had an amazing game. We just need to keep this going."

Porter agreed.

"Like we said after the Serbia game, you know that win means nothing if we don't keep going," he said.