The day that rugby died? Maybe it was because we were in Paris, but it sure felt like it.

If this is what it takes to win World Cups, it's hard to see how rugby is going to expand its audience base. "L'histoire est fini," wrote L'Équipein its demoralised editorial in page one under the heading "Le None de la Rose".

The story is over indeed. It was beautiful while it lasted but now it's as if, à la previous World Cups, the French will be remembered for the outstanding performance of the tournament but not when it mattered.

The difference this time is that France never had a better chance of winning the World Cup, nor might they ever again, and that, as hosts, with rugby enjoying a popularity and potential explosion like never before, this one mattered more.

"This erases everything. It wipes out the win over the All Blacks but it is not an end in itself," said their totem Sébastien Chabal. At least he might have another chance in another World Cup. Not so some of their old stagers.

"I will never be a world champion," said the 33-year-old Fabien Pelous, crystalising the reality of his career as it reaches its end. "It's not the end of the world but I will feel bitterness about it for the rest of my life. I will not stop saying to myself that we could have done it. It came down to a toss of a coin and it landed the wrong way for us."

"We feel sadness, anger and frustration but we have to get over it," said Raphaël Ibanez in the warm light of what must have been a bitter, if beautiful, Paris day.

"Rageant" (Infuriating) raged the heading in Aujourd'hui en Franceas they spoke about the "enorme disillusion", varying their player ratings from 4.5 for Lionel Beauxis to seven for Julien Bonnaire, but giving only two out of 10 to Bernard Laporte.

The deflation, even anger, among French people, from taxi drivers to waiters, was palpable.

It's only a game? This will have repercussions way beyond its relevance as a mere sporting occasion and most of the anger is being directed toward Laporte, for his emphasise on discipline, a structured style and gameplans above traditional French flair.

"When you lose, you can always say you were wrong but you can't say we picked the wrong team," said Laporte. "It all came down to almost nothing. Of course we have regrets. In 2003, it was not the same because England were clearly the best team in the world. This time was different. We were on the same level and had our chances. I'm not saying England will not win the World Cup but they're not above the rest the way they were four years ago."

England players and coaches almost looked as bemused as everyone else. "If you had said to me in December you are going to be in a World Cup final I would have had to have thought long and hard about it," Brian Ashton admitted yesterday.

"We are approaching each game to win it, you back your players to adapt on the day and there were actually times when I thought we played too much rugby," said a coach notionally associated with cutting edge rugby incredulously. "We were playing around with it in our own 10-metre line when I'd rather have kicked the ball downfield to see what France were going to do with it, which, we saw at the end, wasn't a lot."

"Mate, as players, we can't even explain how we've got this far," said Mike Catt. "We're all surprised. What is happening? I don't know, it's fate I suppose; it was meant to happen."

Accepting that it was "completely different" from reaching the final in 2003, he also admitted this felt better: "Yeah, with the group of guys we've got, it's brilliant. But we haven't won anything."

Asked if he had believed it was possible in the wake of the 36-0 pool defeat to South Africa, or even up to the quarter-final win against Australia, Catt said, "To be brutally honest with you, no. After the South Africa game we had a heart-to-heart and we've changed. The players have changed, and the coaching staff have changed and last week against Australia gave us a massive boost as well."

That said, Catt admitted he was pleasantly surprised and relieved that France abandoned their early, high-tempo running game. "I couldn't believe they didn't keep playing with width. We were blowing hard after 20 minutes and (by) adopting a kicking game they played into our hands."

It was a point Lewis Moody expanded on: "They played a much different style of rugby to how I thought they would play. I thought they would be running it all over the shop but they just kept kicking it. We had seen them play a bit like that before but with the players that they have, the speed and skill of their back line and the ability to offload that they have shown in the past, I thought they would test us a lot more."

Soon after the full-time whistle, the public tannoy played Edith Piaf's " Je ne Regrette Rien".

It sounded very apt, but, strictly speaking, nothing could be further from the truth.

Wilkinson refuses imitations

Jonny Wilkinson was presented with a non-match ball for a crucial touchline penalty in Saturday night's 14-9 World Cup semi-final win over France, England have confirmed.

Wilkinson discarded the ball in the 47th minute after spotting it was not one of the six marked match balls and informed referee Jonathan Kaplan.

With an official replacement, Wilkinson landed the difficult penalty from near the left touch-line and pulled England to within a point of France at 9-8.

Wilkinson went on to seal England's victory, and a place in the World Cup final, with a penalty and a drop-goal in the last six minutes of the game.

The concern for England is that this was not the first time a non-match ball had made it onto the field. Wilkinson had been on the lookout for rogue balls after it emerged he had attempted a kick in last weekend's win over Australia with a practice ball.

England's director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, insisted there was no suggestion of skulduggery - but they will not want a repeat in next Saturday's final.

Andrew explained: "A non-match ball got onto the field last night (Saturday) for one of the kicks, which is why Jonny rejected it.

"We didn't say it last week but a non-match ball got onto the field in Marseille, which Jonny kicked and wasn't happy with. He didn't stop to think at the time. We noticed it on the video. There were two panels on the same side of the ball, which is not the way the match balls are set up. Afterwards we said, 'We have to get this right'.

"The match balls are marked one to six and last night (Saturday) they had 'Semi-final, England v France' and the date on them. Jonny was vigilant to ensure they were actually match balls that he was being presented to kick with. We will make sure we have the same vigilance this week."

The issue of match balls was a constant theme in the build-up to the semi-final after England complained they had been over-inflated during the tournament.

World Cup organisers agreed to a change in policy and allowed England and France to practise with the match balls - as is common practice for a home Test match - to ensure they were properly "kicked in".

On match day, each team is given three of the six match balls to use in the warm-up and they supplement that with a number of their own practice balls.

The non-match balls will not fly as well as the game balls, said Andrew.