Back in the day, when it was still funny, satirical television show Spitting Image did a musical skit called: ‘You’ll never meet a nice South African.’
It was harsh and stereotypical but that was the tenet of a programme which poked fun at everything and everybody.
In a strictly sporting sense, there will be a lot of horrid South Africans spoiling our weekend by sending England to defeat in both the Cricket and Rugby World Cups. Steve Borthwick, Jos Buttler and co, are really up against it.
The Springboks ended Ireland’s 15-month reign as the best rugby team on the planet when they reached the semi-finals in France by beating Les Bleus 29-28 in front of a disbelieving full house in Paris on Sunday.
The defending champions are seeking to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy for a fourth time by winning back-to-back tournaments and are now odds-on favourites to be victorious in the final a week on Sunday at 19/20 with Betway.
New Zealand will have something to say about that, of course, after defeating the Irish in an equally epic encounter in the last eight. They are 5/4 with Betfred to win the World Cup but the Springboks look unstoppable.
England did well to hang on to victory against Fiji in Marseille but will have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to beat South Africa at the Stade de France on Saturday.
They are 5/1 with Paddy Power to produce a seismic shock but may have enough heart to keep it close and gain some dignity in defeat. England +13.5 points is 10/11 with Bet Victor.
New Zealand, meanwhile, are no better than 1/11 with SpreadEx to tame Argentina, back over 51.5 total points in Friday’s semi-final at 13/10 with Betway.
Over in the Cricket World Cup, defending champions England are walking on eggshells as they seek to successfully defend their title in India. Poor in the opening defeat to New Zealand, they then cruised past Bangladesh but were abysmal in defeat to Afghanistan.
South Africa produced their own clunker by losing to the Netherlands on Tuesday but hammered Sri Lanka by 102 runs and Australia by 134 runs before that and are 11/10 with Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill among others to defeat England in Mumbai. Saturday is going to be a truly miserable day.
• Travis Etienne Jr has already rushed for five touchdowns this season and is 11/2 to be the first TD scorer when the 4-2 Jacksonville Jaguars face the 3-3 New Orleans Saints in the Big Easy. The Jags are 11/10 with Paddy Power to win the NFL’s Thursday night showdown.
• Conor Chaplin is 9/2 with Coral and Ladbrokes to open the scoring for Ipswich at Rotherham on Friday night and help send the Tractor Boys back to the top of the Championship.
MORE : Heartbreaking Rugby World Cup exits show England the key to beating South Africa
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