To Scotland the bowl and to England the plate, but both were rightly disappointed to have spent yesterday in the play-offs for the consolation crockery, writes Andy Wilson .

An early defeat by Canada had meant the Scots did not even qualify from their group and were reduced to competing with also-rans such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia before beating Tonga in the bowl final. And England's captain Phil Greening admitted he had "wanted to go home" after the 7-5 quarter-final defeat by Fiji on Saturday night which ended his dream of Commonwealth gold.

"I'd had enough of rugby, I'd had enough of everything," admitted the emotional Wasps hooker, whose stray lineout throw handed the Fijians the position for Rupeni Caucau's decisive try. "I was thinking that I'm never getting any luck in my life."

Greening was talked around by England's coach Joe Lydon, but even yesterday in the plate competition for last-eight losers the early signs were not promising as he became the third player in the tournament to be shown a yellow card, sin-binned for a late tackle which left Canada's Fred Asselin with more than the toothache which had led him to take a painkiller including a banned substance last week.

However, England made light of their captain's two-minute absence as the powerful Geoff Appleford, who had already set up the first try for Josh Lewsey, laid on another for Pat Sanderson, and there was even a try for Greening in the second half when he returned with a large plaster on his chin.

That set up a plate final against Australia, who had squeezed past Wales 7-5 in the other semi, a dour game which ended with Newport's Jason Forster in the bin after losing his head. Wales's Rob Howley endured a painful interna tional farewell, sitting out the defeat after being kicked where it hurts by a South African on Saturday night.

The Australians had been as unimpressive as they were unpopular throughout, even if they were unlucky to lose 12-10 to Samoa in their quarter-final when Julian Huxley's attempt to convert his own last-gasp try hit both posts and bounced the wrong way.

England blew them away, scoring four tries in the first eight minutes to take a 22-0 lead with Greening crossing again and Henry Paul the best player on attack and defence, as he had been throughout the tournament.

Fittingly Paul scored the last try in the resounding 36-12 win but admitted: "We were improving all the time, but it was too little too late."

"It's nowhere near to making up for Fiji," agreed Greening. "We felt we could beat them but our own mistakes ended up costing us the game."