South Africa's semi-final victory over Argentina may have appeared routine - as in the quarter-final against Fiji they scored 37 points - but there were faultlines in their game, notably at the scrum and the breakdown, which England can exploit.

The Springboks' management today admitted that they will be paying considerable attention to the scrum - supposedly one of their strengths - this week. The tight-head prop CJ van der Linde was playing his first match back after a knee injury and he struggled from the start against Rodrigo Roncero.

With Os du Randt feeling the effects of a long year and his dodgy right knee, South Africa found themselves in reverse gear from the first scrum against a side who had not lived up to their reputation in the set-piece previously in the tournament. But then this is a World Cup that has not just flouted convention but hurled it out of a top-storey window.

Argentina had hardly passed the ball in their three previous big matches, but they were less comfortable kicking deep against South Africa knowing that a decent return would mean a line-out in their own half, and that was the one area of the semi-final which the Springboks dominated. So the Pumas threw the ball around and conceded three of their four tries after being on the attack and giving the ball away.

England will not be as profligate and another concern for the Springboks was that they created little from their own possession. With England more proficient in the breakdown area than at any time in the last four years, set-pieces are going to be crucial. If Roncero can make a mess of Van der Linde, Andrew Sheridan will shove him all the way to the Parc des Princes, but the area that England have to work on is the line-out.

They struggled initially against France on their own throw and rarely competed on French ball, preferring to have the forwards organised to stop the ensuing rolling maul, which they dealt with pretty effectively. South Africa will be different because they will challenge on England's throw. Victor Matfield is the outstanding jumper this tournament, backed up by Bakkies Botha, but the Springboks also have options at the back with Juan Smith a favourite target.

At the end of the second semi-final, South Africa's technical advisor Eddie Jones, Australia's coach in the last World Cup, was walking down the stairs to the media area. Asked if he could believe that the Springboks would be facing England in Saturday's final little more than five weeks after the one-sided group match between the sides at the Stade de France, he shook his head, smiled and said "no". It was a knowing smile, which said that it would not be another 36-point whitewash.

Will central contracts help or hinder England?

England themselves cannot believe where they are. As the Rugby Football Union basks in unexpected glory and anticipates lucrative new deals, its administrators too feel in a parallel universe having spent the last three years telling all and sundry that the structure of the domestic game did not lend itself to success on the international field because players were being overburdened. England needed to be winning the Six Nations and World Cups to sustain the game financially and that was not going to happen under the current set-up.

The RFU has agreed a central management system for the leading players with the Guinness Premiership clubs, who will receive £11m a year for allowing the Union's elite rugby director, Rob Andrew, to exercise a considerable amount of control over the national squad. Earlier this year, the RFU was extolling the virtues of the system in Ireland where the national head coach dictated when his players appeared for their provinces.

With Ireland failing to make the quarter-finals, with New Zealand and Australia - two other countries with central contracts - not reaching the semi-final stage, and with France, who last year agreed a deal with their leading clubs to put the national squad under the control of head coach Bernard Laporte, losing to England on Saturday, the question has to be asked: will a central management system make England less effective, not more, given that the players have cited their battle-hardened nature, a result of playing so many tough league and cup matches at club level, as a prime reason for their revival?

The RFU's stance will gain some credence if South Africa win on Saturday because the Springboks are also centrally contracted, but if England become the first side to retain the World Cup, and do so underpinned by a club structure so maligned by the governing body, will the deal be worth signing?

The RFU will argue that special circumstances are prevailing here because so many veterans are fighting in this campaign and that a new system is needed to both develop and nurture young players; but the old adage about the folly of repairing things which are not broken will come to mind should what was unimaginable a month ago happen, and Phil Vickery leaves the Stade de France on Saturday night/Sunday morning clutching the Webb Ellis Trophy.