THIS was about passion, about playing with pride for ourselves and for the England fans who came to Marseilles in their thousands, as well as those watching back at home, who have supported us through thick and thin.

Before any match of this magnitude the passionate speeches in the England dressing room, and on the pitch usually come from the captain and the coach, and this was no exception, with Phil Vickery sending out a message which struck a chord with us all before the kick-off.

He said that each and every one of us should never put ourselves in a position where we come back into the dressing room not having fronted up. He said that you would never forgive yourself.

“Don’t leave anything in the tank, and remember we have nothing to fear, because nobody out there believes that we can win.”

He also told us that that’s not the worst place to be – in fact, it’s quite a luxury – and that all we needed to do was have courage enough to take the opportunity.

It is a testimony to our effort that nobody hid, and that everyone did justice to themselves, and the red rose shirt, at the Stade Velodrome yesterday afternoon.

However it is not what people say before games like the one against the Wallabies that make the difference, it is what they do – how they back it up in terms of their actions. You can listen to as many inspirational speeches as you like, but it is more about big players delivering on the big stage. It is about doing yourself justice in deeds rather than words.

It is also about having a sense of responsibility in terms of honouring the tradition and the shirt, and we had plenty of players who were not going to let their reputations simply drift into the night.

I am not saying that we kept this performance back after coasting through the pool stages, because that is clearly not the case, but there was an incremental increase shown in the matches against Tonga and Samoa, and we took it a significant stage further against Australia.

I tend to be on the quiet side before matches and my contribution yesterday was mainly on the technical side. I made a couple of points about needing to keep our wits in defence because Australia distribute very quickly and cleverly to the outside if they sense an overlap.

I reminded the boys that it was important not to overcommit to the rucks, leaving the Aussies with numbers in the line.

Jonny Wilkinson was also keen on us paying attention to the tactical detail. His message? “Let’s keep our attacking shape, and, forget that we all play different formats with our clubs, and stay disciplined and build on the detail against Samoa and Tonga.”

The main message in the dressing room was to do ourselves justice. In international sport you don’t mind being beaten by a better team, but if you are worth your salt you hate going out without a fight.

We responded in the right way with not a single player dropping his work rate throughout the whole 80 minutes. Everyone gave everything.

At half-time you need cool heads, but Brian Ashton stressed to us that we could win it. “You’re in control, keep doing what you’re doing, and you will win.”

The England pack was a joy to play behind, and there’s always some banter between the forwards when England play Australia. ‘Ronnie’ Regan is hardly a quiet guy, and he was giving them some stick going into the scrums in between getting his breath back.

People often underestimate just how important the crowd is to players, but we were all aware of the thousands of England fans who had travelled to the south of France, and we wanted to make them proud. When you deliver, it is a great feeling, and we are all aware of how much it means when your phone turns red hot with texts and phone calls from your mates.

All the “we hate the English” stuff before the game had no relevance to what went on, and none of us went in looking for revenge or retribution for a bit of hype.

England versus Australia is massive enough without the need to rev yourself up.

Afterwards Vickery ensured that we kept our feet on the ground, saying that although it was a great day, and a great win – it was also a lucky win because the margin was very tight.

Martin Corry also spoke for us all when he said that the great fear before the game was not going home, but going home without a performance, as a side that would only be remembered for the games against the USA and South Africa. We knew that if we were going to go down in Marseilles, we would do so fighting. I hope we made people proud.