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Subscribe to RSS FeedMortlock gracious in defeat
A disappointed captain and coach
Australia's losing captain Stirling Mortlock has credited England's 'bullish' performance that resulted in the defending champions carving out a 12-10 quarter-final win in Marseilles on Saturday.
Mortlock rued his kicking performance that was overshadowed by the boot of Jonny Wilkinson, who is now the leading points scorer in Rugby World Cup history.
The Newcastle pivot scored all of England's points with four penalty goals to record a famous quarter-final victory.
Wallabies veteran scrum-half George Gregan, who had an unhappy time at the base of a fiercely contested ruck, has now played his last Test, while defeat meant long-time halfback partner Stephen Larkham wouldn't get the chance to return from injury.
For Gregan it was the worst of endings.
Hot favourites to reach the last four, the Wallabies were overrun by England's Sweet Chariot. Just as they were in 1995 - the only other time an Australia side has departed the World Cup at the quarter-finals stage - and in 2003.
England smashed the Wallabies into submission, dominating every collision area and then relying on Wilkinson's boot - as in Sydney four years ago - to strike gold.
Mortlock had a chance to get Australia out of jail with a 47-metre penalty to win the match with two minutes left to play, but he hooked it left.
The Brumbies centre, who - minus his kicking display - was by far Australia's top performer in the midfield, but admitted that England had deserved their victory.
"It was a very tight, physical battle," said Mortlock.
"Unfortunately, I missed a couple of goals, which I wasn't happy about.
"It was a very stop-start affair today.
"Full credit to the way England played today."
It was a brave, bullying performance from the English forwards, exactly what they knew they had to do to dump the confident Australians out of the tournament.
It was a remarkably courageous display, and England now move on to Paris, where host nation France or tournament favourites New Zealand await them next Saturday.
Australia head coach John Connolly admitted that his side's loss to England stemmed from an inability to compete with the world champions in the set-pieces.
Connolly pinpointed the misfiring Australian scrum and England's intensity at the breakdown as the most significant contributors to the two-point loss.
"They matched us at the breakdown, dominated the breakdown area and that was the end of the game. We lost a bit of composure and the game never really got off the ground," Connolly said.
The southern hemisphere giants poached a try through Lote Tuqiri on 34 minutes and Connolly believed the score, which came against the run of play, would inspire Australia to victory.
"We survived that first 20 or 30 minutes and I thought we'd work our way back into the game. We had a lot of chances," said Connolly.
Connolly admitted that he was not surprised by the intesity England showed throughout the game.
"We expected that. Our breakdown work was poor and our scrum work was poor and they got a lot of momentum out of that," he added.
