Scrum-half Andy Gomarsall credited "sheer grit and bloody-mindedness'' for England's shock 12-10 victory over Australia in the rugby World Cup quarter-final in Marseille.

Jonny Wilkinson kicked all of England's points as the defending champions defied the odds to reach the last four.

"It wasn't pretty, a bit like my face, and I can't believe it to be honest,'' Gomarsall told ITV.

"It was sheer grit and bloody-mindedness. Things we planned to do didn't come off so we haven't shown anything again but the determination and sheer grit was phenomenal.''

Asked if Brian Ashton's side had proved a lot of critics wrong, Gomarsall added: "I guess so, but not in our group.

"We believed we could do it, plenty believed we couldn't but the fans were unbelievable, every time we got a turnover they inspired us to victory.''

Jason Robinson, playing his last tournament for England, added: "I think every man and his dog had written us off but I said there was a good performance in there and today we showed that.

"We have world-class players and we can rise to the occasion.

"We just dug deep and believed in ourselves. Maybe only 30 people in the world (the squad) believed we would do it but we stuck together and came out with a great win.

"It was great to do it for the supporters, there have been a few games where we've not given them much to shout for.''

Asked about the prospects of facing either New Zealand or France in the semi-finals, Robinson added: "We are in it to win it, we will enjoy it tonight and look forward to next week.''

England captain Phil Vickery added: "It was probably not the purest game of rugby but it was fantastic to be part of. "I don't know (how we did it), a bit of belief, just doggedness and determination.

"We've had a tough tournament, it's been difficult and we've been put under huge amounts of pressure and today was fantastic for all the boys and English supporters.''

England had been written off since the 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the group stages but bounced back with hard-fought wins over Samoa and Tonga to reach the quarter-finals.

Vickery told ITV1: "I'm delighted for the players, we put a tremendous amount of work in since the South Africa game and have reaped the rewards.

"We've worked hard and it's taken us time to get to how we want to play the game.

"We are a team that came together five weeks ago and it's taken us five games.

"In the first 30 minutes we played some of the best rugby anyone's played against Australia in recent years.''