It was possibly the hardest on-field appearance Stephen Larkham ever had to make in his 102-Test career - and one that brought him to tears.

But walking on to the paddock of Stade Velodrome in Marseilles to console his crestfallen Wallabies teammates after their 12-10 quarter-final loss to England was something he knew full well that he had to do.

That his playing days as a Wallaby had just come to an end mattered not; even if he deserved a more celebrated finale to his Test career.

Instead, his thoughts were with his teammates, who had just seen their dreams shattered by the defending champions - courtesy of Jonny Wilkinson, again.

"Until that final whistle, I honestly thought we would come back, work our way down to territory, get a penalty and win the game," Larkham said when asked if he had absorbed the fact that his Test career was over. "But it just didn't happen and then the final whistle blew.

"When I went out on to the pitch, looking at the faces of some of the guys and realising I wouldn't be playing with them again was very emotional for me, very difficult."

It was then that Larkham's eyes began to well, as he spoke of the others whose careers had been brought to an abrupt halt by the loss, including George Gregan and coach John Connolly.

Larkham, 33, who could not play because of a knee injury, revealed that he struggled with his emotions as he saw the 139-Test career of the Wallabies halfback and his foundation Brumbies teammate, Gregan, 34, end in defeat.

"That was probably the most emotional moment out there on the paddock," he said. "After the match, I caught George's eye and I had to go up and give him a hug. That was very difficult for me. It was too much for me at the time …"

And he didn't hold back when asked what role Gregan had played in his career. "He has been the rock behind my career," he said. "Every game that I have played, he has sort of been there. He has played a lot more games than I have.

"He was my mentor when I first started in the five-eighth role. He coached me throughout the early years and continued to coach me through the later years in terms of correcting things in my game. I am indebted to him."

Larkham also revealed some of the talk in the despondent Wallabies locker-room.

"The coach [Connolly] said he was very proud with what we have done over the last six weeks and two years," he said. "'Stirlo' [captain Stirling Mortlock] said we have to learn from this for the next World Cup. And there was mention of the guys retiring - from the management and in the players. But we sort of left it at that.

"The guys were very disappointed, a lot of tears and stuff you would expect."

Despite Larkham's knee injury, he still felt, until moments before Australia's elimination from the World Cup was confirmed, that he might get to play in the semi-final.

When asked if his hopes were realistic, Larkham said: "I was still running the red line in terms of getting there. The last couple of days haven't been so good for me. There is a fair bit of swelling in the knee. But I was still very hopeful of playing and I was mentally preparing to play next week."

Larkham, adding that he would not talk about his continued search for a new club until next week, reiterated that the younger members of the Wallabies still had plenty to take from this World Cup.

"There are a lot younger guys in the team who will be playing in the next World Cup. I will be watching them with interest," he said.

Gregan, meanwhile, kept his emotions in check. "It's the end, that's it. I can't do anything about it," he said.

"I will just enjoy the last moments over a few beers with the boys in the team environment."

Gregan admitted that the Wallabies failed to deal with the big-game occasion.

"That wasn't our best performance," he said. "We didn't take our opportunities and it just became an arm-wrestle.

"We probably didn't cope with the pressure as well as they did. It comes down to [that] at this end of the tournament."