Graphic: The final reckoning - where the game could be won

What a change in the atmosphere. A week ago there was spring in the autumnal air here in Paris and French hopes were high of an appearance in the final of their World Cup. Now the hosts are gone, a transport strike has disrupted the city and in two little corners of the capital, Neuilly and Bercy, there are patches of ground that are English and South African.

Those countries meet tomorrow to contest ownership of the Webb Ellis Cup at the Stade de France, a forecast no one would have been brave enough to make when the tournament began on September 7.

Perhaps the Springboks, who named an unchanged XV yesterday, but who in their right mind would have tipped England? “You've been associated with a lot of losing causes with England,” one television interviewer said to Martin Corry at the team hotel, inviting the Leicester forward to share his thoughts about appearing in the final. “That's a lovely positive way to start a conference,” Corry said, with a degree of restraint that did him credit, but he and his colleagues have been doing themselves credit for the past month.

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BACKGROUND

• It’s widely known that I’m teetotal. I broke the habit on this occasion

• England take heart from brave new pretenders

• How England rated

• Miracle men suffer dose of reality

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• England's future rosy, but is Ashton included?

• Toulon wait for Springboks master

• IRB aims to secure future not just for kicks

• South Africans urged to grasp chance for change

BACKGROUND

• Springboks dominate awards

• Boks on top in brutal battle

• Springbok kickers destroy England

• Ashton merits credit for glorious run

BACKGROUND

• It's over: dream dies as Boks win Rugby World cup

• Boks kill the unlikely dream

• Brave England go down with pride

• Video ref made 'brilliant decision’

BACKGROUND

• So who ate all the croissants?

• Au revoir France

• Victory whoops of the rainbow warriors

• Mrs Mills solves all your rugby problems

BACKGROUND

• English roses fall for Saint Jonny

• Stodgy England confine Bryan Habana

• Still joking about the All Blacks and Wallabies

• Wheels come off the chariot

Multimedia

• The World Cup Podcast

• Josh Lewsey's video diary

• The Rugby World Cup blog

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• Martin Johnson: How to get our hands on the trophy

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Their reward has been the scorn of many in the southern hemisphere and not a few closer to home, who have labelled them boring and suggested that an England success tomorrow would be a disaster for the sport. It is curious how people see what they want to see, that they fail to understand what it is to hack a path out of the jungle and, on the way to clearer paths, produce a quality that many did not believe they possessed.

Even their head coach has had to restrain them. Midway through the second half of Saturday's semi-final against France, Brian Ashton sent a message on to the field to tell his players to kick the ball more. They were, he said, playing too much rugby and any neutral viewer of the video will perceive what he meant; in ten and 15-second patches, England produced phases of luminous skill and that is what South Africa will fear tomorrow.

“A couple of weeks ago the four southern-hemisphere sides were going to dominate,” Jake White, the South Africa coach, said. “All this talk of north versus south is irrelevant when it comes down to the World Cup final. It's about England and South Africa now and they must be in a great mindset. They were dead and buried, they came back and beat Australia and France on two consecutive weekends.”

This weekend is about White, too. The closing date for applications to coach South Africa after the World Cup is this evening and White is not expected to have reapplied. He has fought his corner through thick and thin these past four years, he has remained longer than any predecessor since South Africa returned to international competition in 1992 and he has achieved his country's first World Cup final for 12 years. In all probability, therefore, he named his 52nd and last Springboks team yesterday, which showed only one adjustment to the squad that beat Argentina: Wikus van Heerden comes in for Bob Skinstad as the back-row replacement and Os du Randt, the only survivor of South Africa's 1995 victory, will play his last international in the front row.

He is not alone. Jason Robinson will not be seen in England's back three again and it is a fair bet that a clutch of other England seniors will see this as the final instalment. “It has all the ingredients to be a classic,” Robinson said. “But what a way to finish. Sometimes I do have to pinch myself. But it's one thing playing a final, another to win it.”

Robinson has done both, losing the 1995 rugby league World Cup to Australia at Wembley and winning the union version (against the same opponents) in Sydney in 2003. “I'd be a liar if I said that I haven't thought about the try I scored that night,” he said. “But part of this week has been about trying to control the thought processes. If your mind drifts to those moments, you try to withdraw a bit because the more you focus on that, the less time you have to think of the job in hand.”

Tomorrow, Robinson will pace his room, pretend to sleep, try to eat before ending up with his usual liquid diet of protein shakes. But he is there and the others, France and Argentina (who play the third-place play-off at the Parc des Princes tonight), New Zealand and Australia, are not.

Paul Honiss, the New Zealander who handles the play-off, will pass Derek Bevan's world record of 44 internationals, Tony Spreadbury, of England, has confirmed the end of his international refereeing career and Bernard Lapasset, the president of the French federation, is favoured to be confirmed this evening as successor to Syd Millar as chairman of the IRB.

So life goes on around them, supporters scramble for match tickets, but for the players of England and South Africa, time is standing still.