England says it was surprised by France’s tactics in their Rugby World Cup semifinal and believes the fact Bernard Laporte’s men abandoned their natural flair played perfectly into their hands.

England came from behind in the final five minutes to win the match 14-9 and book its place in next weekend's final.

The French did not score a single try in the match and rarely ran the ball, preferring to kick away possession. England stuck defiantly to its strengths and played a forward-dominated game.

"They played a much different style of rugby to how I thought they would play," England loose forward Lewis Moody said.

"I thought they would be running it all over the shop but they just kept kicking it.

"We had seen them play a bit like that before but with the players that they have, the speed and skill of their back line and the ability to offload that they have shown in the past, I thought they would test us a lot more."

England coach Brian Ashton said his team was more than happy for France to use that style of rugby.

"We approach each game to win it and adapt to the game. We back players to be adaptable, to be able to adapt and this is what we did," Ashton said.

"In fact, we played too much rugby. About 10 minutes into the second half, we were throwing the ball around our 10 metre line.

"But why not kick for position and see what France could do with it? Because evidently, last night, they couldn't do much.