England 12 Australia 10:For the second World Cup in succession England will be facing France in the semi-finals while Australia limp away to stick pins in their Jonny Wilkinson voodoo dolls. After a month of southern comfort the Northern Hemisphere has struck back with a vengeance.
Rather than slinking home minus their world title to face a stony-faced post-mortem, England have advanced to within 80 minutes of becoming only the second team to reach successive World Cup finals. Considering that they were staring into the abyss only three weeks ago it is a stunning illustration of sport's infinite capacity to confound.
The underlying force behind their improbable renaissance had very little to do with John "I hate the English" O'Neill or the Australian skills coach Alec Evans, who had helpfully predicted the Wallabies would win by 30 points if they played it right.
Instead the pre-match theme in the dressingroom was to do justice to those who have served England so faithfully for so long. This might have been the final curtain for, among others, Lawrence Dallaglio, Mike Catt, Mark Regan and Jason Robinson and a determination to rage against the dying of the light was widespread.
"In the changing-room we were all saying: 'Let's have no regrets and make sure we remember this game for the rest of our lives'," revealed Ben Kay.
If England can upset the French this Saturday they will have won four Tests in a row for the first time in four years.
Should they do so, it will be a victory of collective bloody-mindedness. Even in 2003 England did not display this amount of intestinal fortitude. A full half-hour before kick-off Dallaglio was already jabbing his finger at his team-mates in agitated Victor Meldrew mode, belying his supposed status as a mere bench replacement.
The pallid effort against South Africa was suddenly consigned to the dustbin, aside from their recurring failure to cross the opponents' try-line. The entire pack deserved a gallantry medal, Lewis Moody bouncing around like Tigger in celebration of his 50th cap, and Wilkinson's four penalties from seven attempts duly made Australia pay for a performance that lurched from the mind-numbingly ordinary to the tactically suicidal.
Rarely have the Wallabies displayed so many frailties, both physical and mental, in the same big game. Even in the closing moments, at 12-10 down with three minutes remaining, there was still time for a green and gold resurrection when Joe Worsley was penalised for entering the side of a ruck. It looked beyond Stirling Mortlock's range and the situation cried out for long, raking Latham punt to the corner, a lineout catch-and-drive and a drop-goal a la Jonny. Instead Mortlock hoofed in vain, Al Baxter was tackled into touch by Matt Stevens in the final seconds and that was that.
"It was our worst performance of the tournament . . . our scrum got into strife and England controlled the breakdown," sighed John Connolly, the outgoing Wallaby coach. He was even less impressed by O'Neill's unnecessary pre-match contribution to England's cause. "These things don't help, do they?"
In many ways this was a more hurtful pill to swallow than the humiliation in Twickenham two years ago because their forwards coach Michael Foley has spent umpteen hours working on scrummaging technique to counter the likes of Andrew Sheridan. In the event Guy Shepherdson endured the longest afternoon of his life as Sheridan took the step up from baby elephant to king of the herd.
Apart from a nasty moment at the first scrum, which was reset four times before the referee Alain Rolland unaccountably decided that England were to blame, Sheridan and friends established such utter dominance that Mortlock, for one, would not be entirely surprised if they go further.
"If England can play to their strengths and be as effective at the breakdown, I believe they've got enough firepower out wide to give anyone a shake," said the Wallaby captain.
Not without reason did Phil Vickery also thank the island nations of Samoa and Tonga for playing England into some form, although the lesson of England's pre-Jonah Lomu quarter-final success over Australia in 1995 is that roosters can very quickly become feather dusters.
Those who specialise in the field of Anglo-Australian rivalry were also keen to stress the significance of the result. Australia, it seems, gain no more satisfaction from beating England than they do New Zealand, South Africa or anyone else. What really matters is making sure that they don't get stuffed by the bloody Poms. It is a subtle distinction that sociologists in both countries can debate for at least the next four years.
AUSTRALIA: C Latham; A Ashley-Cooper, S Mortlock, M Giteau, L Tuqiri; B Barnes, G Gregan; M Dunning, S Moore, G Shepherdson, N Sharpe, D Vickerman, R Elsom, G Smith, W Palu. Replacements: A Baxter for Shepherdson, H McMeniman for Elsom (both 66 mins); D Mitchell for Ashley-Cooper (67 mins); A Freier for Moore (73 mins); S Hoiles for Palu (76).
ENGLAND: J Robinson; P Sackeys, M Tait, M Catt, J Lewsey; J Wilkinson, A Gomarsall; A Sheridan, M Regan, P Vickery; S Shaw, B Kay, M Corry, L Moody, N Easter. Replacements: T Flood for Catt (64 mins); G Chuter for Regan (52 mins); M Stevens for Vickery (59 mins); J Worsley for Moody (67); L Dallaglio for Easter (69 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (Irl).
