Wynne Gray's 50 greatest rugby moments: No.34

Lawrence Dallaglio of England consoles Matt Giteau of Australia at the end of the 2007 quarter-final. Photo / Getty

Any southern hemisphere swagger took a hit at Marseilles in 2007 as England ground the Wallabies into submission.

All sorts of noise with an Australian twang had them running off with this quarterfinal as skills coach Alec Evans predicted a 30 point win if his men got it right while chief executive John O'Neill delivered more borax at the English.

England ignored those taunts as they pledged to give all of their soul to honour those who had carried the side to their solitary World Cup triumph four years earlier in Australia.

The Wallabies scored the solitary try in a turgid confrontation but Jonny Wilkinson kicked four penalties to edge his England side to a 12-10 victory amidst rising late tension as Stirling Mortlock missed penalties.

England's gratitude was widespread but special mentions went to their frontrow of Andrew Sheridan, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery who pulverized the Wallabies in the scrum.

It left the Wallabies looking powerless as their concerned glances at each other grew more anxious with each misfiring set-piece. All the pre-match posturing about the improvements in their scrum proved as authentic as free passes across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

"It was our worst performance of the tournament....our scrum got into strife and England controlled the breakdown," departing Wallaby coach John Connolly said.

Forwards coach Michael Foley had spent hours on the Wallaby scrum technique and there was general optimism it would hold up. It did for the first scrum and then evaporated as Sheridan, in particular, went on the rampage.

England were destroyed 36-0 by the Springboks in pool play but then fought back in several other physical yet unconvincing victories against Tonga and Samoa. It was an improvement but the Wallabies were still strong favourites to make the final four.

Instead they skulked off home wailing about their scrum failings and Wilkinson while England, almost in disbelief, boarded the train for Paris and the semifinal against France.

From the real possibility of a pool play exit they were within one victory of defending their World Cup title.