Shellshocked Australia coach John Connolly admitted the Wallabies had left their worst performance until last as they crashed out of the World Cup at the hands of England on Saturday.

The Wallaby players slumped to the ground in disbelief after failing to handle the unrelenting England pressure in a tense Stade Velodrome quarter-final.

It was a bitter international farewell for record-capped scrum-half George Gregan, in his 139th Test match, and also for his long-time team-mate 102-capped Stephen Larkham, who missed the match with a knee injury.

More acute for the Wallabies was that for the third time in tournament history it was bitter rivals England who who were their World Cup executioner.

Rob Andrew's drop goal dumped them out in the quarter-finals of the 1995 World Cup in South Africa and Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal won England the 2003 final in extra time in Sydney.

This time the Australians were rattled by resurgent England, flustered into error and failed to find any attacking flow, despite scoring the only try of the match through winger Lote Tuqiri.

"It was our worst performance. England controlled the breakdown very strongly and from that we never got any momentum. Our game never got off the ground," said Connolly, who also coached his last game for the Wallabies.

"At no stage did we control the breakdown in any shape or form, we were always on the back-foot, when we did get on the front foot we were dangerous, but we were flustered and we lost a fair bit of composure and made uncharacteristic errors, things we pride ourselves on not doing."

Skipper Stirling Mortlock was particularly crestfallen for his long-time team-mates Gregan and Larkham to bow out of the World Cup on a losing note.

"I think that Stephen and George have given so much, not just to Australian rugby, but to world rugby. For them to bow out in the quarter-final, as well as everyone involved in our team, is extremely disappointing," he said.

"It's an extremely quiet, dull dressing room at the moment. They're extremely disappointed with the way we played today. But credit goes to England with their breakdown. We didn't get any rhythm," he said.

Mortlock was dismayed with missing three of his four penalty attempts, one a last-ditch 47-metre effort two minutes from fulltime which went wide.

"Personally, obviously goal-kicking-wise, I'm very disappointed. I should've kicked them."

Connolly conceded that England needing to beat Samoa and Tonga to reach the last eight after their humiliating 36-0 defeat to South Africa, were probably more match-hardened than his Wallabies.

"I think it probably did. Our pool wasn't the hardest. We were always building to this game," Connolly said.

"We had lots of young players playing in their first World Cup. We made some unusual mistakes, but you have to give credit to England for their breakdown."

AFP