England players hailed their collective team spirit after defying expectations to beat Australia 12-10 and advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup quarter-finals.

The Wallabies scored the only try of the game and Jonny Wilkinson missed three of his seven penalties but he landed four place kicks to capitalise on England's dominance in the scrum.

"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," said captain Phil Vickery. "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 have now won three matches in a row since they were beaten 36-0 by South Africa in the pool stage and Vickery praised his team-mates for the way they have built momentum with wins over Samoa, Tonga and now Australia.

Vickery added: "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."

The England players enjoyed the chance to celebrate on the field at the Stade Vélodrome, but as they drifted back to the dressing room they conceded the game hadn't been a great spectacle.

Scrum-half Andy Gomarsall said: "It wasn't pretty, a bit like my face, and I can't believe it to be honest. 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. 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."

Jonny Wilkinson may have kicked the vital points but the England players clearly believed their spirit and self-belief carried them through.

"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," said Jason Robinson. "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."