England won the plate competition after producing a rousing performance against Australia.

Joe Lydon's side played with a confidence and swagger that was missing in the early rounds and raced into a 22-7 lead by half time.

After early Australian pressure, Ben Gollings out-sprinted the Wallabies' defence to score an opening try, and then England playmaker Henry Paul spun the ball wide for captain Phil Greening to slide in unopposed under the posts, sending the capacity crowd into raptures.

And the volume level rose again immediately afterwards as Tony Roques skipped out of a covering tackle to touch down in the corner.

With Swing Low Sweet Chariot ringing around the stadium, Pat Sanderson delivered a superb pass to Josh Lewsey, and the Wasps flyer gave England a 22-point advantage.

Australia finally found their feet in the closing minutes of the first half when Tim Atkinson hacked on to score under the posts for a converted try.

Both sides struggled with conditions underfoot, and although Australia scored first after the interval through Peter Miller, England hit straight back after excellent handling from Lewsey.

From the tackle, he handed on to Nick Duncombe for a clear run under the posts as England opened up a 29-12 lead.

Captain Greening was replaced by Geoff Appleford with just over three minutes remaining, but England's intensity remained top notch.

Paul, nursing a cut above his right eye, sealed the win by picking up from a ruck and spinning clear to round off a 36-12 triumph.

Coach Joe Lydon admitted his team had failedin the tournament as a whole and said their quarter-final defeat against Fiji had felt like the end of the world.

"Losing that game was a big blow to everybody's morale and ego," he said.

"We had a big heart to heart about it, and while it wasn't the end of the world, it certainly felt like it.

"But we said to the boys that it is all about learning. It is about what they take back to their clubs, and how they develop themselves for international rugby. Hopefully, some will come back and play sevens.

"These opportunities provide invaluable experience, whether it's 15-a-side or sevens, club or country."

England captain Phil Greening shared the overwhelming feeling of disappointment, and revealed the Fiji loss had hit him badly.

"Last night, I thought 'that's it, I've had enough' but Joe had a word with me and the boys all stuck together," said the Wasps hooker.

"The occasion got to us a little bit. The fact that some television commentators were saying that they wanted Fiji to beat us because it would be a shame to have them out of the tournament, riled us a bit.

"But there was a lot of banter this morning. Everything wasn't as serious, and it showed on the pitch. We ended up working off each other, and we enjoyed it."

Lydon felt the Fiji loss had spurred his players into action, and they responded through crushing both Canada and Australia.

"There was a lot of pride at stake for those players. Saturday night was a bad night - they didn't play particularly well against Fiji, and they were determined to put some pride back," he added.

England are set to play a full part on the International Rugby Board world series again next season, having developed into a major sevens force during the past 12 months.

And Lydon feels even though England's Commonwealth campaign did not produce the result he wanted, it still provided plenty of memories.

"It has put the sevens game on a truly world stage," he said.

"The Tri-Nations and Six Nations are all huge international events, but the Commonwealth Games really is a different stage.

"It has been marvellous to be on the same stage as other athletes at these Games."