A drop of magic

CRY God for Jonny, England and St Clive! England are rugby kings of the world. It took them two periods of extra-time to get there and they may, as the Wallabies coach Eddie Jones good-naturedly put it later, be only "world champions by a minute", but no-one can argue with England’s right to be called the best team on the planet after seven weeks of sustained, winning effort culminating in almost two hours of the highest drama in an epic finale last night.

England won this tournament, and this final, fair and square and even the most one-eyed of Aussie observers - and there are plenty of those around - would have to admit that the better team lifted the William Webb Ellis trophy, the first time by a northern hemisphere nation. What is more, they weren’t even boring in doing so, scoring one fine try and asking a mountain of questions of the supposedly more enterprising Wallabies, who in the end had few answers. As the scoreline of 20-17 suggests, however, it was a close-run thing ultimately, far closer than the Australians really deserved, for like France in the semi-final before them, the will and the energy had been slowly squeezed out of them by this ruthlessly efficient white machine.

As it is, Jones will probably be tormented for the rest of his life by the memory of what he and several million Australians had dreaded, but were powerless to prevent, that of England stand-off Jonny Wilkinson dropping the winning goal seconds from the end of extra-time. World champions by a minute, indeed.

"Jonny is a great player and has had a marked impact on this World Cup," said Jones ruefully. "He kicks well from hand, is a fine defender and he kicks field goals at crucial times. He is outstanding under pressure and while he missed a few earlier he knocked over the one that counted, and you have to take your hat off to him for that."

The rest of the home nations may be less willing to doff caps to Wilkinson and England and are undoubtedly bracing themselves for several decades of 1966 and all that, with the prospect of trips to the Palace for Sir Clive and Sir Jonny, a Christmas hit single for the squad and a flood of autobiographies telling us all how it was done.

But at least there wasn’t much English arrogance on display when coach Clive Woodward, captain Martin Johnson and faithful lieutenant Lawrence Dallaglio appeared, wreathed in smiles, at the post-match press conference.

"It’s fantastic," said an emotional Dallaglio. "They called us Dad’s Army, but I think we proved something tonight. All credit to Australia, they hung in there and just would not lie down and were worthy defending champions. But to come down here and take the trophy away from the southern hemisphere is absolutely fantastic. This is the greatest moment in my career."

For Johnson, the warrior king of this great side, its heart and soul, winning meant "almost everything." He added: I’m just happy for the players because they put so much into it. It has been a great World Cup, an absolutely brilliant tournament. Full credit to Australia, they went down fighting and they are a very good team and very good footballers. In the end, it couldn’t have been any closer and in extra-time it could have gone either way. I am just happy to be on the right side."

As a match, this may have left a lot to be desired and the fare could have been better to place before a Rugby World Cup record crowd of 82,957. As they had in the French game a week earlier, the weather conditions on the night made handling and passing a lottery and forced a string of errors out of both teams. But certainly no-one could complain about the game’s dramatic content or England’s mastery of their antipodean rivals.

Despite a horrendous penalty count against them in the second half that allowed Australia centre Elton Flatley to keep his side in touch with a string of successful kicks, they again played the percentage game to perfection, establishing field position and pinning the Wallabies in their own half for long periods.

"I thought we adapted very well again," said Woodward. "It wasn’t pretty rugby, but it was an awesome night and I will never forget this. It takes 15 players, but the whole squad have been brilliant. I feel ecstatic for every single person at the ground.

"We made a lot of errors, but we won the cup, so that’s it. Right now, I’m absolutely speechless."

Australia had scored the first try through wing Lote Tuqiri with Jason Robinson replying for England close to the interval, and the men in white had established a healthy 14-5 lead by half-time. But the defending champions refused to lie down.

Captain George Gregan said: "I’m proud of my guys. We gutsied it out and we fought back. We were down 14-5 but we fought back to extra time. With extra-time about to start, I just said to the team: ‘We have 10 minutes each way, let’s execute, let’s keep our heads and give ourselves an opportunity. We came up a tad short, but it was a massive final, wasn’t it? Two world-class teams going at it hammer and tongs into extra time. Congratulations must go to all the England team. They delivered under pressure when it counted."

None delivered more than Wilkinson, the young stand-off who had been rubbished and taunted constantly in the more rabid sections of the Aussie press in the week preceding the final. He also missed three drop-goal attempts before nailing the winning one.

But as his captain Johnson said: "Wilko at the end was brilliant, outstanding. I can’t say enough about him. He was right there at the death, as he always is. You’d have no-one else there, would you?" To which, even Eddie Jones would have to nod his assent.