Graphic: England kill time before Wilkinson's drop-goal

That dropped goal - the one that won the World Cup four years ago in Sydney - was the product of necessity and training. This dropped goal – the one that on Saturday killed French hopes of reaching their own final – was born of slow, methodical approach work that both wound down the clock and gave England the hope of a decisive score.

When Jonny Wilkinson won the 2003 final against Australia it capped the most perfect piece of tactical play this old game may have seen. With the scores tied at 17-17 and no more than two minutes of extra time remaining, Martin Johnson called for “zigzag”, the move England had worked on in private and which was executed to perfection, even down to the pick-and-go that allowed Matt Dawson to resume his post at scrum half, all the better to serve Wilkinson.

When the Newcastle Falcons fly half dropped his angled 40-metre goal at the Stade de France here, England were already in the lead at 11-9, thanks to the ability of his forwards to control play so patiently that when the ball was finally released to Jason Robin-son, the defence was caught off balance and the penalty conceded, duly converted by Wilkinson. But what England then needed, with five minutes left, was another score to ensure that France could not recover the lead either through a penalty or a dropped goal of their own.

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That message had been rubbed in a week earlier, when they led Australia by two points and then had to stand under their own posts to see if Stirling Mortlock could convert a long penalty to snatch the quarter-final brand from the fire.

England achieved their aim thanks to Sébastien Chabal. France had the chance to run the ball when Wilkinson could not find touch and worked it left to Chabal, who found his way barred by two of the slimmer England backs, Toby Flood and Paul Sackey.

They hustled him into touch and Marius Jonker, the touch judge, pointed out to Jonathan Kaplan, the referee, that Chabal had used his forearm illegally while trying to fend off the England pair.

Wilkinson’s kick gave England a lineout some 30 metres from the France line. Martin Corry took the throw and the maul made ground to the 22-metre line; the set-up, though, had still to come. Simon Shaw and Joe Worsley formed a London Wasps phalanx, driving into the heart of the defence and when the ball was released, Dan Hipkiss set up another maul nearer the middle of the field.

Peter Richards had time for a little dart before Lawrence Dallaglio took up the cause, while, behind him, Wilkinson ambled to the right along the ten-metre line, without shaping for the dropped kick. When Richards finally fired the ball back to him, there was no defender nearby and the casual swing of the left leg gave England the cushion they needed; it meant that France, to win, had to score a converted try and that they could not do.