Rugby World Cup: Can it really be an England-Argentina final?

If you had told me that England would still be involved in the action at the penultimate weekend of the Rugby World Cup, I would have offered to eat my shoe on TV. But here we are, after a forgettable four years of abject misery where England under Andy Robinson would even have lost to an injury-plagued Romania - and Brian Ashton's men have a one-in-four chance of winning the Webb Ellis trophy.

'How much of a contest it will be depends on which team turns up for England'

Of course my head says South Africa should win it now, but my heart says if it isn’t New Zealand then the three lions should get it.

I do not expect Argentina to offer too much esistance against the Springbok pack and Bryan Habana will outsprint anything that the Pumas have. I expect it to be a tight encounter, though, because at this point the stature and history of a side count for very little. Mind you, Diego Maradona’s fellow countrymen are no bunch of mugs, either.

As for the England match, France should have just that that little bit more in their tank, buoyed by their victory against the All Blacks last week. England’s triumph was huge, yes, but the Aussies were a shadow of the 1999 side that lit the blue touch-paper. It will be a contest, no doubt about that, but how much of a contest depends on which team turns up for England.