Everyone reaches for Wilkinson as he leaves the field.

By Neal Collins

When it came, the World Cup winning drop goal wasn't landed by the much-feared left boot of Jonny Wilkinson. It came from his less well known right foot.

It's some partnership.

Wilko, who actually punched the air when he produced the last-gasp winner in extra-time in a rare show of emotion, admitted: "We knew what we had to do and when the ball came back to me it was possibly the easiest attempt I'd had all day.

"I'd been practising drop-goals like that every day since I was about five or six with my right foot as well as my left.

"When you don't score in the second half off a Test match you get nervous. But we kept our self-belief and it's fantastic to know that we're world champions.

"When we got back in the dressing room I had a good chat with the lads and then found a quiet corner in the medical room and sat and thought about what had happened."

Australia's players knew exactly what was going to happen when England drove deep into their half with the scores level at 17-17.

But they were powerless to prevent the world's biggest rugby star ending their fightback from 14-5 down.

And Australian coach Eddie Jones believes that Wilko will inspire a new generation to take up the game.

"I knew that he was going to try a drop-goal and you could see he was edging back," said Jones.

"England did it so well and you've got to admire their control. We might have been quicker in defence or made a better tackle to slow them down, but they played that last minute very well.

"He's absolutely one out of the box, Jonny Wilkinson. He's a one-off. His goalkicking's fantastic, his field kicking is first class and he can kick drop-goals too.

"He's able to convert their field position into points and he's had a significant impact on the World Cup and on England winning the World Cup.

"Probably kids all over England will be buying his boots and a lot of kids won't be having dinner with their parents on Christmas Day. They'll be out practising their kicking instead."

Jones added: "It was certainly a photo-finish. You slug it out for 100 minutes and then you get beaten in the 99th minute. We went down with all guns blazing.

"England were outstanding. In fact they're the best team in the world by one minute!

"They're an outstanding team, they play to their strengths, they've got a good forward pack, some hard-running backs and they should be praised as the best team in the world;

"They're well coached and well prepared and they confirmed everything they've done in the four years since losing that quarter-final against South Africa."

When Wilko kicked three drop-goals in the semi-final win against France, the Aussie press started claiming their value ought to be reduced to one point rather than three.

Jones joked that he had been won over to their point of view.

"I'd prefer them to be worth one point, but that's probably a very uneducated bad loser's point of view," he said.

Australia captain George Gregan thought the game was heading for sudden-death extra-time after Elton Flatley had levelled the scores.

"I knew when Flatley kicked our penalty there were a couple of minutes left and we needed to get in good field position," said Gregan.

"But then they drove it at us and you could see Jonny Wilkinson getting ready to do what he does best.

"England are very professional, they do what they have to do to get victories and when it matters most and that's why they're world champions."