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LONDON - British newspapers revelled today in England's rugby World Cup quarterfinal victory over Australia, saying the performance was a fitting full stop to a war of words which had erupted beforehand.
"The Australians like to think of themselves as macho men, but yesterday England made them look like schoolkids," former England star Jeremy Guscott wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper.
"All the guff from John O'Neill, the Australian Rugby Union chief executive, backfired in the biggest way possible because it simply inspired not only this English team, but all Englishmen everywhere, to ram the words of hate down his throat."
O'Neill had claimed that everyone in Australia "hates" the English ahead of their 12-10 win, while Australian legend David Campese also joined in the taunts.
Guscott added: "Tie me kangaroo down, sport? Yesterday the Aussies couldn't have tied down a pet hamster."
"Atomic Pom!" was the headline in the News of the World, which said the players had "rammed Aussie taunts down their throats to book a place in next weekend's semifinal against France.
Many newspapers singled out Andrew Sheridan and Jonny Wilkinson, who is now the World Cup's record points scorer, for special praise.
The Observer's headline read: "Jonny kicks Aussies where it really hurts."
"The world champions derided as the worst defenders of the Webb Ellis Cup anyone could recall put all they had on the line ... to advance to the semifinals of what might be the most unpredictable of all the six World Cups," it added.
The Sunday Telegraph singled out Wilkinson as "indispensable" and said that the front row was "all-powerful" while the Sunday Times named Sheridan its man-of-the-match and said the England pack had "humiliated" the Australian scrum.
In his column, veteran player Mike Catt predicted more fireworks to come from a side many had written off.
"Win or lose in Paris next week, England are now in France for the duration and after what happened in this match, anything is possible," he wrote.
"We're certainly not looking at the third place playoff after yesterday's performance."
- AFP
