Last month Japan enthroned their new emperor and now in Yokohama on Saturday a new world champion will be unveiled.
England and South Africa stand 80 minutes away from history.
It has been quite a journey for both these teams, Eddie Jones’ revolution rose from the ashes of England’s pool stage exit four years ago.
Rassie Erasmus has worked his wonders in even less time, two years ago the Springboks were down at eighth in the world rankings and looked a long way from potential world champions.
On the evidence of the last six weeks, and in particular last weekend’s semi-finals, England are going to take some stopping on Saturday.
The rankings reflect their rise to No.1 and the clinical way they dispatched the All Blacks in the semi-finals has sent England fans scurrying to travel agents.
Everyone wants to sample a slice of history that awaits them this weekend, but the Boks are not here just to make up the numbers.
They have played two finals before, and won them both. They will look to spoil the party, both World Cup victories saw no tries scored and none conceded.
A similarly stubborn defensive showing this weekend is needed to frustrate a free-flowing England who are looking to complete the SANZAAR sweep after knocking off Argentina in the pool stages and Australia and the All Blacks in the knockouts.
England named an unchanged starting XV this weekend, the first time in three years under Jones and the real boost there is that Kyle Sinckler and Jonny May are fit and firing after semi-final scares.
The Boks are similarly settled, their Bomb Squad of replacements add sizable impact and they have talisman Cheslin Kolbe back after an ankle injury saw him miss the semi-finals.
This will be the last Test in charge for Erasmus before moving upstairs to a directorial role, while referee Jérôme Garcès takes charge of his first final on his final Test outing.
It all comes down to this then, for both England and South Africa and the watching rugby world, there is no tomorrow.
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