Brian McDermott described England's 82-0 demolition of France as "enormous" in difficult circumstances, praising his side for securing the big win they needed without abandoning their game plan in pursuit of points.
McDermott's men faced an improbable task in their bid for a semi-final place after Samoa hammered Papua New Guinea 64-6 in the opening match of the day.
But England's slim hopes remain alive thanks to a 14-try rout of the French.
“What we’ve done today is enormous given the context," said McDermott post-match. "Just enormous.
"We had to win big and any coach will tell you that nobody thinks like that; you just want to win. If we had to just win, that would have involved high completions, a stiff defence and discipline.
"But we had to win big – and we've all had candid conversations this week about what it means – and we've been able to do that without chasing points.
"I don't think we played hot. Everything was measured and inside the game model."
England ran riot after a scoreless opening quarter, Herbie Farnworth and Dom Young leading the way with hat-tricks.
Hull KR half-back Mikey Lewis scored twice as a second-half replacement, while club team-mate Jez Litten helped himself to a first international try.
England must now beat PNG convincingly enough to overturn a 68-point deficit while hoping Samoa lose to Tonga.
"Another pleasing factor is that when the game got tough and we weren't allowed to score tries for fun, we buckled down and defended and worked hard," added McDermott.
"We’ve been together for only five field sessions. We’re building something here and there was a bit of that on show today.
"We've been chasing that performance. We can see how good we’re going to be and if this group is together for a process or a long build-up to a tournament, we can achieve some special things.
"Whatever the results are we want to finish strong. If that means we’re going home, that would be a disappointment – but I don’t know what we could have done."