There will be plenty of eulogies dedicated to the courage of an England pack that stemmed a four-year one-way tide that England had seemed incapable of understanding at times, let alone turning. Australia went into the match as the fastest improving team in the tournament. In media circles, more than a few of us have been quietly wondering if the Wallabies were ready to turn the All Black World Cup dream into another nightmare, as they did at the semi-final stage in Sydney.

Only a few thought England were the team with a World Cup repeat in them. The shadows of the last final crept into play as England edged ahead in the second half, by full-time we were back in Cape Town and 1995 when Rob Andrew sensationally booted Australia out at this same stage. This game lacked the sheer drama of South Africa but there was intelligence to this performance, packaged up with the sheer dominance at the scrum and physicality at the breakdown which merits the deepest respect. This was not just a strong forward performance, it was a bright one – and that made all the difference.

There had not been that many clues as to England being capable of a big performance in the build-up to this game; you had to be at England’s final press conference on Friday to get the first hint that maybe, just maybe.

England selected a team with a weighty look to it. The conclusion was that this was to be rugby trench warfare, and while the scrums were an obvious area of advantage, too much in the way of one-paced rugby would surely play into the hands of George Smith and his dynamic chums.

But Brian Ashton said something that made you wonder, if only for a split-second, about whether a Wallaby victory was so inevitable. “If you only play one way they’ll shut it down quickly because they are the smartest team in the world.”

England were to play with enough variety to make the Aussies think twice, and it worked. The first 15 minutes had England keeping possession, bludgeoning the big men down the short side, which they mined early and incessantly before adding the width that the favourites believed England were either incapable of attacking, or would never have the temerity to attack – what with Smith and Stirling Mortlock so supreme in the central parts of the field.

But attack England did and when Jason Robinson flashed through the clutches of an Australian pair of arms after haring away off an inside pass from Simon Shaw, England came away – not with the points but with tangible proof that they had it in them to penetrate Australia, and maybe, just maybe.

That extra variety, the change of pace from a side that remains short of individual pace was brave. Before the game you may have thought it foolhardy, but it did change the subtle dynamics and despite England trailing 10-6 at the interval, the team moved towards the tunnel and Ashton’s words faster than they moved throughout the desperate performance against the USA.

It was this mental bravery that enabled the pack to find themselves a believable foundation, a narrative on which to build their path to the semi-final. We knew Lewis Moody would whiz around with his demented anarchic tendencies, but we were less certain that his huge reservoir of energy would be spent wisely. Yesterday it was; a couple of opportunities were quite badly wasted by the Leicester teara-way; soft and accurate hands could have opened a path to the Australian line but the fact that he was finding himself in open field with support runners coming from different angles was so impressive. Instead of hiding – as so many struggling teams will do – in the claustrophobic world of the set-pieces, England were forging some faith in areas few thought they would venture.

This team is a distance from greatness, but having the guts to have a go was both courageous and psychologically important. On a sultry Provencal afternoon, England’s elderly pack was expected to wilt. It didn’t. The siege duly developed and referee Alain Rolland, after a slow start, worked out that the weaker boys getting the sand kicked in their faces are generally the transgressors. But work it out he did and England grew bigger and bigger as the Wallaby eight diminished to the point of total scrum disintegration.

That alone would not have been enough if England had not accelerated into the contact zones where every side has handed England a lesson – until yesterday. The battle for the millimetres has been a mismatch as the southern hemisphere have monopolised control. From nowhere, or as England have persistently claimed, the training field, they found the requisite cohesion.

To win the match George Gregan had to be forced onto the back foot continually, thereby testing the match temperament of fly-half Berrick Barnes. Led by Andrew Sheridan and Simon Shaw for most of the game, Moody and an impressive Nick Easter were able to execute the plan to perfection.

Gone were the days of one or two men bridging contact situations and controlling the possession. Instead they risked turnovers by smashing into every green and gold shirt, fighting for quick ball and their rugby World Cup lives. This was bravery across the board, physically brave, as England always are, but mentally courageous also, which has been anything but the case for the past few years.

Brave decisions, too, in the selection of the team; for once the easy option would have been the retention of Matt Stevens at the expense of the struggling Phil Vickery. Until the quarter-fi-nal the captain had scarcely raised a bellow, and few expected either him or Mark Regan to start, but both were rested up and both had a point to prove. And both players achieved just that.

The players who must have been devastated not to have made the starting 15 also played their part as substitutes. On form, George Chuter and Matt Stevens deserved inclusion in the starting 15. World Cup shocks are not always built on justice but sometimes the ability to provoke more than one can come from your players. Stevens added uncompromising support to Sheridan as Australia’s more athletic pack wilted.

Australia might wonder how they lost a game against an older, slower and individually inferior group of players. They lost because England found the courage of mind and heart. Mix it with some smart thinking from the management and a subtle blend can work wonders in this game.

England have a distance to journey before they can think of retaining the World Cup, but the triumph in Marseilles has gone a long way towards banishing the nightmare of the past four years. In the Ashton future, England will look a lot more attractive in the manner of their game, although a lot of English folk saw beauty enough to make Marseilles a memory they, as well as management and team, can cherish.

Stuart Barnes won 10 caps for England between 1984 and 1993

Against the odds: England’s biggest upsets

England were 4-1 outsiders to beat Australia in the World Cup quarterfi nal yesterday before the game kicked off. But after their dramatic victory, Phil Vickery’s team had their odds on winning back-to-back World Cups slashed from 50-1 to 14-1. It is not the fi rst time they have upset the odds

June 2003, Wellington New Zealand 13 England 15 Down to 13 men, Martin Johnson inspired England’s first Test win in New Zealand for 30 years, left

June 2003, Melbourne Australia 14 England 25 England paved their way to World Cup victory four years ago with their first ever away victory against Australia

November 2003, Sydney England 20 Australia 17 England beat Australia 20-17 to win the World Cup, right, thanks to Jonny Wilkinson’s extra-time drop goal October 2007, Marseilles England 12 Australia 10 England silence the doubters – and loud-mouthed Aussies – with a gutsy quarterfinal victory to send the Wallabies packing