World Cup: Will Greenwood has always been one of this England side's most eloquent advocates, and yesterday he offered a typically lucid insight into the team spirit that drove them to their World Cup final victory over Australia.

Asked how they held their nerve in the dying moments, Greenwood quoted one of his heroes, the former Green Bay Packers coach. "You don't want to plagiarise legends, but I think it was Vince Lombardi who said sport's not about how many times you get knocked down, it's about getting up every time. We've fallen over in the last three or four years but we keep getting up."

He said that the shared experiences on the summer tour to Australia and New Zealand had helped the team regroup after Elton Flatley's last-minute equalising penalty.

"You're under the posts and Elton Flatley has just kicked an 80th-minute equaliser and you go into extra-time and there's not one look of panic, not one look of fear," he said.

"These are just the same guys you've been with in Wellington when you were down to 13 men against the All Blacks, or 12 points down to Australia, and we've come back before. These things stand you in good stead.

"We knew there were some tired bodies out there but that if we were tired then they were even more tired, the way that our pack had done such a fantastic job on them.

"The law of averages says Wilko isn't going to miss four out of four and if we get him in range then one is going to pop over. The only relief is that at one stage I thought it was going to be me that passed it to him off my left hand, but Jonno (Wilkinson) took up another ruck and we got Mr Dawson back in the place he loves and the pass was pinpoint accuracy."

Guardian Service