KEY POINTS:
PARIS - England coach Brian Ashton said the champions' 36-0 defeat by South Africa was the best thing that could have happened to his team at this World Cup.
Ashton's men, bidding to become the first side to successfully defend the Webb Ellis Trophy, will have a chance for revenge for last month's Stade de France pool match defeat when they return to the Paris venue for Saturday's final against the Springboks.
South Africa, the 1995 champions, beat Argentina 37-13 in their semi-final on Sunday.
England, who had opened their campaign in France with a lacklustre 28-10 win over the United States, then suffered their worst World Cup defeat at the hands of South Africa.
But for those two matches England were without their talismanic goalkicker Jonny Wilkinson, sidelined with an ankle injury.
The drop-goal hero of the 2003 final in Sydney ended French hopes with a penalty and a drop-goal during the last five minutes of Saturday's 14-9 semi-final win.
Ashton, who only took charge in December after former coach Andy Robinson was ousted after a run of 13 defeats in 22 matches, said he had had relatively little time with his squad in the lead up to the World Cup.
"When you put a new team together, as we have, in the context of a rugby or soccer season, we are only six or seven games into the season and you need five to bed down," the 61-year-old former Bath and Ireland coach explained.
"In that regard the South Africa match came at the right time as it was a kick up the backside and showed we needed to get our act together. That was the defining moment of the tournament for me.
"Since then we've won four games on the bounce and we'll hopefully make it five next week."
Some southern hemisphere critics have argued that the style of rugby employed by all four semi-finalists, with a heavy emphasis on a forward-dominated and kicking game, has been bad for the image of rugby union as a spectator sport.
But Ashton, who when England's backs coach under Clive Woodward won plaudits for the team's attacking play, said results were his only concern.
"If I remember rightly, we scored the only try of the game," said Ashton as he recalled wing Josh Lewsey's second minute touchdown against France.
"We are just approaching each game to win it. You back your players to be able to adapt on the day.
"There were times against France when we played too much rugby. About 10 minutes into the second half, we were throwing the ball around our 10 metre line.
"Whatever they say from 12,000 miles away, I just bet they were sat here where I am right now," said Ashton who explained the guiding principle of his approach to coaching was to encourage players to work things out for themselves.
"I give a fair amount of responsibility to players on field. I hate coaching by dictatorship, I am not a control freak. It is their game."
- AFP
