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Sheridan will face France on Saturday
The 2007 World Cup in France is down to the final four, and we have not been without some surprises.
New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Fiji have joined Wales and Ireland on the early buses out of town as England, France, South Africa and Argentina are the only teams remaining in the quest for the Webb Ellis.
Miles Harrison is on duty this weekend in Paris in the commentary box for ITV - on loan from Sky Sports - and he gives us his thoughts on both semi-finals.
One way or another, we were going to be asking you about England this week. Did you really think though that we could be talking about semi-finalists?
MILES: As I said in this column last week, if forced I would have put my money on four Southern Hemisphere teams in the semi-finals. I am happy to hold hands up and say, 'I was wrong'.
A lot of other people are in the same boat and I am delighted to be wrong. England's performance was their best since the last World Cup and certainly during the course of 2007, I don't think we have seen anything anywhere near that level.
It is a great credit to the players, for the faith they had in themselves, for their hard work and their ability to produce it on the day that really mattered.
Nobody expected them to get this far, so how do you rate their chances of retaining the World Cup now?
MILES: They are pretty good, there is no doubt about that, but you could make a good case for anyone of the four semi-finalists as potential winners of the World Cup.
I include Argentina in that, and we have stopped talking about them in terms of shock capacity. They have proved throughout the competition that they have the game and the players that can beat the best sides in the world.
I don't want to make out that England start as favourites now because their task is still a huge one. To start with, they are playing a team that have just knocked out the number one side in the world in a home semi-final in the World Cup. The game is on a ground where England don't have a great record, so there is still an almighty job that needs to be done to get to the final, let alone win World Cup.
It will be difficult but England have beaten France this year at Twickenham and they came very close in August at Twickenham. There wasn't the same intensity in that match as there will be in this one but England were just a tackle away from winning that match. It is relevant in the psychology because England will believe they can beat France.
And they face France, conquerors of New Zealand, what do you make of the team that struggled in the first match of the tournament against Argentina but humbled the All Blacks in their last match?
MILES: I was with France on Wednesday and the general feeling in the camp was that the whole Argentina thing was about winning the World Cup before it had started.
I was also with England on Wednesday and Rob Andrew made the point that you don't win the World Cup in the first two weeks, but in the last two.
France were unbelievably poor on the first night and made to look poorer still by Argentina. They didn't play well but weren't that far away come the end of the match.
That was then and this is now and the most relevant French performance was the last one and it was a fantastic effort in Cardiff. They will return heroes and I think the crowd will give them license to play. The expectation will be less of an issue than it was on the first day of the tournament.
Everyone here in France thought their World Cup was about to peter out and France would lose to the All Blacks on foreign soil in their own World Cup.
The whole country has been given a lift and the crowd will get behind them. That said, with 40,000 Englishman on their way over here, the English crowd could play a big role too.
It is critical, as was the case in Australia in 2003, when even though Australia were hosting the final, at times it didn't feel that way and that is how it had to feel in Paris for England.
We've got to talk about New Zealand and Australia too. Four more years of hurt for both teams, do you have any sympathy for them?
MILES: Losing in the quarter-finals represents the worst performance by an All Black team at the World Cup. That doesn't really matter though because all that matters is winning.
I have been stunned by the reaction in New Zealand - the nation has taken it terribly and even now are still dissecting moments in the game, reliving forward passes and looking for reasons why. But in the end they only had themselves to blame.
It was a forward pass and I can understand why it is an issue but you can't say that is why New Zealand went out of the World Cup. They had chances to win the game and certainly should have won it before half-time with an extra score. Another try then and there may not have been a way back at 20-0. It would have been game over.
It comes down to the fact that, for whatever reason, they are not playing well at knockout, tension-riddled rugby and haven't done that since 1987. It might be to do with competition structures, weight of expectation, but if the expectation is high now, wait 'til the next one when they host it four years down the road.
Australia had their chances to win it as well, with Stirling Mortlock missing a 77th minute penalty that would have won the game for the Wallabies.
I must admit I didn't think he would kick it. Of course he had a percentage chance, but I just didn't think he would get it. It must have been a hard call for him, as kicker and captain, to make. On the day they were a well beaten team.
Defeat meant the end of two great careers. Stephen Larkham wasn't involved and that must have been a sad way for him to call it a day and there moment at the end when George Gregan, the world's most capped player, drifted off the field unnoticed.
It isn't the way either of them would have wanted to say farewell and you feel sympathy for them, but they are hardened pros who have been there and done it and know that you have good days and bad days. They have enjoyed some very good ones but sadly, for them, Saturday was a final bad one.
England only won by two but realistically it could and should have been 20.
That brings us back to this game and the point that England must take those chances. It remains the problem.
Jonny Wilkinson could score all 24 points in a semi-final victory, as was the case in 2003, but you sense that England will come unstuck if they don't score tries. In the aftermath of Marseille I don't want to think about a negative but as the weeks have gone on, I am sure England have thought about precision in attack and how it has to be spot on the further they go in the competition.
One final question and the second semi-final, South Africa v Argentina. What have you made of South Africa as the tournament has progressed? They came out of the blocks very strong but looked more than a little nervous against Fiji and Tonga.
MILES: This is a great chance for South Africa to win a second World Cup. They did start off playing very well against Samoa and then of course beat England 36-0.
On that day England were bad, very bad, and South Africa were precise in their finishing. Since then it has been as if they have been just waiting for this moment, to get to the semis.
Fiji got very close - they drew level and were inches away form another score that would have made it very difficult - but I never felt they would lose that match. Against Tonga, I felt the same although in the end they were only a bounce of the ball away from losing.
My worry for South Africa is that they have almost played themselves out of form. It is a long old tournament and you can't be at your best all of the time. Maybe it has been a case of mentally knowing what they had to do and waiting for this moment, where they have two games in a week to win the World Cup.
We will find out on Sunday night. They will have to be at their best and Argentina will come hard and throw everything at them.
I see it as a semi-final settled by a score either way but if South Africa return to their best form, I think they will be in the World Cup final.
