En route to the final, Australia finished first in Pool A with four wins and no losses or draws before defeating Scotland in the quarter-final and New Zealand in the semi-final.

England finished on top of Pool C and, like Australia, went undefeated with four victories and no draws before beating Wales in the quarter-final and France in the semi-final.

The final was played in front of a Rugby World Cup record crowd of 82,957, with 22 to 30 million television viewers, and was refereed by André Watson of South Africa.

Wilkinson was named man of the match, and the England playing and senior coaching team were appointed to the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours.

England failed to defend their trophy at the following 2007 Rugby World Cup (hosted by France), losing 15–6 to South Africa in the final.

[4] Australia won by a World Cup-record margin of 142–0, with a tournament-record 22 tries: five by Chris Latham, three each by Giteau and Tuqiri, two each by Rogers and Morgan Turinui and one each by David Lyons, Mortlock, Jeremy Paul, Nathan Grey, Matt Burke, John Roe.

Tries by Mortlock, Gregan and Lyons were converted by Flatley, who scored his fourth penalty in the second half to put Australia 24 points ahead of Scotland.

A last-minute Robbie Russell try (converted by Paterson) gave Scotland seven extra points, but Australia won the match 33–16 for a place in the semi-final.

[20] England qualified for the finals by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1999 World Cup, and were placed in Pool C with Georgia, Samoa, South Africa and Uruguay.

Martyn Williams scored a try (converted by Iestyn Harris) to put Wales eight points behind before a last-minute Wilkinson drop goal advanced England to the semi-finals, 28–17.

[28] André Watson, a 45-year-old retired civil engineer and school rugby fly-half from South Africa, was selected as referee for the final.

[33][34] Australia coach Eddie Jones noted that World Cup finals were generally disorganised, and said that it would be good if the match was contested "with a good balance between the important ingredients of rugby, and that is contest versus continuity": "Our responsibility is to play naturally and with freedom and our natural game is to attack, so we'll be keeping our part of the bargain.

[36] Kate Ceberano performed Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors", the competition's official song, replacing Kasey Chambers, who had withdrawn.

[51] Australia were without prop Ben Darwin, who sustained a prolapsed disc in his neck (contacting his spinal cord) during a scrum in the team's semi-final with New Zealand.

[53] England coach Clive Woodward made one change to the side which began their semi-final against France; Tindall replaced Catt (who was made a substitute) to counter Mortlock's running ability, and indicating that England wanted to run more with the ball, and not rely on Catt and Wilkinson's dual kicking strategy.

[54] Low cloud cover and sporadic downpours fell in Sydney on the morning of the match; it tapered off to a drizzle,[35] making the pitch damp.

[55] The match began before a World Cup record crowd of 82,957[36] at 20:00 local time with Wilkinson kicking the ball into Australia's right-hand defence, where it was collected by Nathan Sharpe.

[62] Seven minutes later, England made two errors in succession from consecutive line-outs and Australia earned a penalty kick when Dallaglio was penalised for being offside when he thought it was open play; Watson, however, decided that a ruck was being formed.

[57] In the 53rd minute, Dawson and Lewsey made an illegal cross that caused an accidental obstruction and gave Australia a penalty kick inside the England 10-metre (33 ft) line.

[57] After England secured a line-out one minute later, Lewsey got the ball and passed it to Wilkinson[56] (whose second attempt to score a drop goal went wide of the left-hand post).

[55][36] Flatley scored the penalty from 15 m (49 ft) out on the right of the England half with ten seconds left, bringing on extra time with the teams tied 14–14.

[56][57] Wilkinson opted to take the penalty,[57] and kicked a shot from 44 m (144 ft) out wide on the right which went between the posts and put England back in the lead.

[56][57] Tuqiri was prevented from scoring a try when Cohen and Robinson were tackled from 5 m (16 ft) three minutes later;[59][62] Wilkinson held the ball, giving Australia a line-out.

[2] Dawson passed the ball to Wilkinson,[36] who could not be stopped by Gregan and scored a right-foot drop goal from 30 m (98 ft) out with 28 seconds left to put England back in the lead.

"[70] His counterpart, Jones, conceded that the better side won the final:[35] "You slug it out for 100 minutes and get beaten in the 99th – yeah, that would qualify as a photo finish.

[35] Greenwood said that during the match and when he received his World Cup winners medal he thought about his son, Freddie, who died shortly after he was born in 2002.

[72] Flatley described the pressure he felt when scoring the two penalty goals which meant that the match would go into extra time: "I had my hands together praying and I didn't see either kick.

[55][77] Woodward's assistant Andy Robinson asked Watson during the post-match celebrations why England were penalised for scrum infringements, and was told to review the video footage.

The team then met the queen and other senior royal family members at Buckingham Palace, followed by a reception at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

[36][82] At the next World Cup, hosted by France in 2007, England reached the final for the third time in tournament history before they were defeated by South Africa 15–6.