Battle won and lost at the breakdown

Australia knew England would test their scrum and lineout but the area where they expected to establish ascendancy, the breakdown, was turned into their greatest weakness as the holders, in defiance of their performances since winning the World Cup four years ago, dominated the tackle area.

In doing so, they stopped the Australia scrumhalf, George Gregan, controlling the game, exploited the inexperience of the outhalf, Berrick Barnes, and nullified the midfield threat of Matt Giteau and Stirling Mortlock. The statistics had England forcing nine turnovers, but the Wallabies lost ball in contact and lost the collision battle.

The one area of concern for England was a failure to capitalise on possession. They at times seemed unsure what to do with unexpected ball and hoofed it away aimlessly, but it also allowed for a looser game in which the second row Simon Shaw was at last able to play in the white jersey as he does for Wasps, running clever lines, bursting tackles and slipping deft passes.

One of the reasons England's breakdown play has suffered is that referees in the Premiership do not allow a contest for possession. As long as a player taking the ball into a tackle makes it available as soon as he hits the ground, his team will be able to recycle it and defending teams, instead of contesting the ball, fan out in a defensive line, minimising attacking options. An interesting subplot to France's victory over New Zealand was the way Wayne Barnes controlled the breakdown, penalising Richie McCaw for playing the ball off his feet and allowing the French to hold on to possession.

"The breakdown was an area we targeted," said England's openside Lewis Moody. "We knew that Australia had come through their group without being really tested and we saw they had become lacklustre in the ruck area.

"We certainly surprised them there and it was really good to see our analysis off the pitch paying such dividends."

England's scrums and lineouts were error free but what won them the game was their ability to stop the Wallabies taking play through the phases by bossing the breakdown.

"The breakdown is a key area in the World Cup," said Shaw. "We saw that when Argentina defeated France and we knew that if we gained the advantage there we would win the game. We put in some big hits and forced them to surrender possession on a number of occasions.

"Was it disappointing that we failed to score a try? That does not come into it."