South Africa may lack England's first-hand knowledge of the pressures that accompany World Cup finals but do not believe they lack mental fortitude. Too many members of their team have come through bad times to be here and any Springbok team that fails to deliver must come to terms with with one of the most demanding publics in the world.

In fact they do have a World Cup winner in their ranks in the formidable prop, Os du Randt, a survivor from the 1995 tournament. But so many of his colleagues, the core leaders such as John Smit, Victor Matfield and Percy Montgomery, have endured lean times before reaching the sunny uplands here in France and they understand how to deal with disappointment.

Indeed, there has been an agreeable level-headedness about South Africa, before this tournament as well as during it. Much of that stems from the atmosphere created by Jake White, the coach, whose strength of character shone through as recently as last November when, in between preparing his team to play England in back-to-back internationals at Twickenham, flew to Cape Town to face down a vote of no confidence.

South Africa were accused of arrogance prior to Sunday's semi-final with Argentina, though this seems one defect notably absent from this party. They know they have a strong spine to the side, they have one of the best scrum halves in the world in Fourie du Preez, and that knowledge has built confidence; even when Fiji were scoring points against them in the quarter-finals, Smit kept a level head as captain and demanded his colleagues do the same.

They will not under-estimate England, despite that 36-0 win in the pool stage. They may remember that it is not so long (last year, in fact) that they themselves lost 49-0 to Australia yet bounced back in that Tri-nations tournament to beat New Zealand. They have a justifiable confidence in themselves and their coaching panel and they will carry that into the Stade de France.