Basic England have potential to go down respectably against Springboks

There was much disbelief and a fair degree of mirth after the final whistle sounded in that breathtaking match in Paris on Sunday night, when realisation dawned that dear old England, Steve Borthwick's boring army, are the only Northern Hemisphere team left in World Cup 2023.

We hear a great deal - particularly in this country - about how best to manage the 'World Cup cycle'. Maybe England have shown us the way. Namely, by doing everything arseways for three years so as to show up at the tournament having developed a beleaguered siege mentality.

Since 2021, England have won six of 15 Six Nations matches, including losing three from three to both Scotland and Ireland. They've been beaten at home by Argentina. They sacked their highly paid, world renowned head coach less than 10 months out from the start of the tournament.

Their incoming coach promptly bigged up his new charges by announcing that they "weren't good at anything." This soon appeared an overly generous assessment after they conceded 53 points at home to France in March. In the autumn, they broke new ground by losing to Fiji for the first time.

Meanwhile, at club level, barely a month went by without news of another historic side going to the wall. Amazingly, Wasps, two-time European champions and six-time Premiership winners, are no longer a going concern and their Wikipedia begins in the past tense.

But now - without having gotten substantially better - England are back in the World Cup semi-final, a stage of the tournament which remains closed off to Ireland. Thousands of English rugby fans, most of them dressed in Crusader garb we hope, are shuffling across the Channel ahead of the semi-final with South Africa.

The hero of England's World Cup journey is