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