Semi-final countdown:The contrast in mood between the England camp of four years ago and now could hardly be starker. Four years ago, they were a slightly malfunctioning team coming off a poor performance against Wales who nevertheless believed their destiny was to win the World Cup, and so it proved. But now, at their airy, tree-lined base in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the vibe is more "How did we get here?"

In a squad containing 14 thirtysomethings, the 35-year-old Lawrence Dallaglio and the 36-year-old Mike Catt have become two of the sages of the squad. Both are also hugely proud men, who scarcely concealed their displeasure at being dropped after the 36-0 thumping by South Africa in England's second pool match, and perhaps because of being in the twilights of their careers and the maturity that goes with that, they aren't afraid of expressing themselves.

Nor are they swinging from the chandeliers at their gradual re-instatement, in Dallaglio's case as a last quarter replacement, in Catt's as a late call-up for the quarter-final win over Australia.

Notwithstanding that England were pretty lucky to be in the competition after a poor performance against Wales four years ago, they expected to be in the semi-final. "Without being blasé about it that's where our World Cup started," said Dallaglio.

"We raised our performance (against France) and it was probably our best performance of the tournament and Jonny Wilkinson, on the back of a poor performance against Wales, was probably man of the match against France and that's the measure of the bloke he is. It was raining, but it rains everywhere in the world, so we dominated them in the scrum and got to them around the base and got away from them really.

"France hadn't really played anybody by that stage," added Dallaglio, which doesn't say much for their quarter-final win over Ireland but, by contrast, he believes "both teams are battle-hardened" this time around.

Comparing this England team with the one four years on is harder for him. "We all accept that one swallow doesn't make a summer. We've played one blinding game in this competition. We'll take that. It's got us into a semi-final, but we have a huge amount to improve on. The team four years ago had been unbeaten against the Southern Hemisphere sides for three years. That's a different stratosphere from this team.

"We've won one game," he added, smiling broadly, "against Australia. It was a magnificent game. I'm as happy as all the thousands of fans but you can't compare the two. (In 2003) we went out expecting to win every game. But you also can't underestimate what that one win has done for us. It gives huge confidence, as will France's win, but in terms of comparing the teams it would be wrong to do that before the end of the tournament."

Catt has a sharp rugby brain and is something of a free spirit. A veteran of both the 1995 tournament and 2003, when England turned to him as alternate playmaker to Wilkinson in the knock-out stages at inside centre, he took the heat off the celebrated outhalf and gave England an injection of fresh thinking as well as kicking. There was more of the same in Marseilles last Saturday.

He is clearly no fan of the forward-orientated, juggernaut approach nor the territory-obsessed, kicking game that has prevailed here, or at any rate likes the idea of players still being able to think for themselves.

"Plan B hasn't really worked for a lot of teams in this tournament so really it's a case of getting Plan A right," he observed during the week in what is assuredly one of the defining comments of the 2007 World Cup.

Strongly hinting that the English backs, primarily himself and Wilkinson, abandoned the pre-ordained coaches' tactics, Catt pointed out that Australia dropped both wingers back along with fullback Chris Latham to counter England's anticipated kicking game.

"They didn't put pressure up at all so every time I looked up and Wilko looked up we had three guys to kick it to, so rather than kick it down their throats because then it would come straight down the pitch, we decided to run it. We didn't really talk about it, we just went and did it, it just automatically happened; and that was the nice thing about it, although the coaches were pulling their hair out at half-time saying kick the ball down there.

"We probably did play a little too much rugby in that first 30 or 40 minutes but it got us into the mood and sort of ran them ragged as well. I think they were very surprised by the way we played but I think this weekend will be completely different."

Asked if his performance last Saturday dispelled any self-doubts, Catt said: "I never doubted. I wouldn't be here if I did. It was good fun, I really enjoyed it again and played the way I wanted to play, and the backline like to play. Josh (Lewsey) got his hands on the ball, Sacks (Paul Sackey) got his hands on the ball, and we had Simon Shaw and Sherry (Andrew Sheridan) dominating up front, so it was ideal

"Every international game nowadays, especially in the World Cup, is based on field position and a lot of teams have just played the kicking game and I think in our minds, we are also aware you can run yourself out of your own half but I'll say it again, we probably did it a little too much, so we just need to get that balance right.

"That's probably the first time we've played like that for a while so as long as we can change things on the hoof, if we can do that, then we'll see where we go."

Catt becomes the first English player to play in three World Cup semi-finals in his 12th meeting with the French. "All the other games are history. They're in the record books and it's now the semi-finals of the World Cup, and it's the same for both sides."

Pretty downbeat about England's chances before Saturday, in his Sunday newspaper column Catt re-iterated he had expected to be going home after the quarter-final. He sounds cautiously more optimistic this week. Citing the two warm-up defeats to tomorrow's opponents, he said: "We sort of understand what the French are about and it is about which French team turns up on the day. We looked at the video of the Marseilles and Twickenham games and we're playing a completely different style of play to what we played in those two games.

"The French defend a particular way and we've got to make sure we play to the space and play to our strengths. That's vital, but it is going to be tough."