By Mike Greenaway
The English (un)sporting press. You have to wonder at their utter lack of shame. Fickleness will always be their name.
A month ago, the newspaper men from Fleet Street were digging deep into their thesauruses to find undiscovered - and even more scathing - adjectives to describe the "unmitigated disaster and disgrace" that was the national rugby team.
They lost interest only when the bones of the poor old English bulldog had been picked clean.
Cut to the week of the final of the Rugby World Cup 2007. England's players are again facing their press army (more than a 100 follow England), but the virulence has magically given way to cooing and oohing and aahing as the reporters prepare once more to send their team victorious, happy and glorious.
The players have looked on this with ironic grins and their attitude to the press was wonderfully summed up by No 8 Nick Easter who, borrowing from golfer Nick Faldo, said that he would like to sincerely thank the media for what they had done for the team "from the heart of my bottom".
In fact the media has inadvertently done a lot of good for the England team.
When lock Ben Kay was asked what had turned the team around after their 36-0 humiliation at the hands of the Springboks, he said that the media had hounded the players into a corner until the point was reached that the only thing they could do was come out fighting.
"We were like drug addicts who had reached the absolute bottom. We could not sink any further, and the boot was being put in left, right and centre. Truly, the only way was up," said Kay, who happens to be the son of a high court judge.
Now England can do no wrong, and their praises are being sung to the world to the extent that the Springboks find themselves in the uncharacteristic position of being willed to win by any person who is not English.
It goes without saying that here in France the Springboks are now honourary Frenchmen. The French hatred of the English - and it really is hatred - is exacerbated by the thought that England could win their World Cup in their stadium in their capital.
After the Boks had beaten Argentina in the semi-finals, one exasperated French reporter could not contain himself at the press conference and yelled to John Smit: "Pleeze Spreengboks BEAT England!"
England winning here would complete France's humiliation - the disappointment of losing to the Poms in the semi-final at the Stade de France has just about undone the miracle of beating the All Blacks in Cardiff, and once again fanned the flames of dislike that seem to extend all the way back to England's 15th century victory at Agincourt during the 100 Years War.
One French newspaper called on Frenchmen to support the Boks because many of the players have French heritage. It was pointed out that many Boks over the years have had French surnames: De Villiers, Le Roux, Du Plessis, to name just a few.
The writer was quite right. Thousands of protestant Hugenots escaped persecution from the Catholic authorities by settling in the Cape in the early 18th century.
Besides future Springboks, they also gave us the wine farms of the Western Cape.
Businesses neighbouring the Springbok hotel - on a bend on the River Seine in the suburb of Bercy - have got into the spirit by displaying messages of support in their shop windows. One office block has "Go Springboks" extended across about 30m of windows, with each letter about one square metre in size.
It has been interesting to see the support for the Boks coming from Australia and New Zealand. Rugby fans there have never been partial to the Boks, but in the case of this World Cup final, the Boks are seen as very much the lesser of two evils.
The New Zealand Herald carried a story yesterday headlined "Please Springboks, end this nightmare," with writer Chris Rattue begging: "Come on South Africa. Please, please, please . . . annihilate boring, hopeless England."
Fair enough. No arguments with that.