With France not expected to beat New Zealand later Saturday, Fiji considered a weak opponent against South Africa on Sunday and Scotland already on a run of five losses in a row to Argentina, the quarterfinals offer little hope of upsets.

But England, which has been in a prolonged and deep slump since winning the title in 2003, came from 10-6 down to edge the two-time World Cup winner in Marseille.

"I think every man and his dog had written us off," said fullback Jason Robinson. "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.

"We just dug deep and believed in ourselves. Maybe only 30 people in the world believed we would do it," he said, referring to England's World Cup squad. "But we stuck together and came out with a great win."

Wilkinson, who became the all-time World Cup leading points scorer with 234, kicked four penalties and even missed three more and a drop goal that shaved the post.

It was a record fourth time England had posted a tryless victory in a World Cup game but it's huge army of supporters at the Stade Velodrome won't care about that.

Wilkinson's boot provided the points that were effectively created by England's pack and the Wallabies lost for the third time in a row to the English in World Cup play.

The game kicked off several hours ahead of the other quarterfinal between New Zealand and France at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

World Cup host France has had to travel abroad to play its game after losing its group game to Argentina and finishing second to the Pumas in group play.

The championship organizers finally came up with a solution to a color clash between the two teams. The French initially won a coin toss which decided the All Blacks could not wear their traditional black shirts.

France will play in their blue shirts but with white shorts and socks. The All Blacks will still wear gray.