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Even a fortnight ago, a script suggesting and less than 24 hours later would have been marked fantastical rubbish and instantly binned.

Sporting hopes being rubbished before the contests have even been concluded is not new, of course.

Not many thought England could win the football World Cup back in .

Even fewer thought, on a June weekend in 1981, that at Headingley and go on to retain the Ashes.

And I was there in the Olympic Stadium in Athens in August 2004 when Dame Kelly, then just plain Kelly Holmes, stormed past us . Having already claimed victory in the 1500m, she instantly turned our forgettable athletics performance into something memorable.

But even by the standards of these mighty sporting achievements, the England rugby story is unique.

Even they seemed to be just a game away from coming home, the once mighty champions doomed to defeat and dreadful post mortems.

Now, whatever happens on Saturday night, theirs is the story of arguably one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history.

David beating Goliath is always exciting, but when a Goliath considered to be on his death bed, as England were, rises up and slays even mightier giants of the world game, the story becomes very special.

And very sweet. So sweet that this triumph reaches far beyond the normal , to what may be called .

, but this weekend it is our rugby boys who have claimed her.

In the process, Brian Ashton's men have created a national feel-good factor that not even the most skilful political spin doctor could have produced.

If the suddenness of the rugby revival takes our breath away, then Hamilton's story is no less exciting.

By the very nature of , it's more a novel than a short story like the rugby one. But what a novel.

Hamilton's story has something of Tiger Woods. Like America’s golfing superstar, Hamilton impressed many .

But then, like a Graham Greene novel, there was a twist.

The sport became embroiled in tales of spying and skulduggery that .

He survived and, hopefully by the time the rugby boys are celebrating in Paris, he will be revving his engine in to produce the sort of double triumph that will be unique in British sport.

And all the more remarkable given that these successes would be in sports that can't normally compete with football for the nation’s affections.

The double triumphs, if they come, will do much to remind the world that Britain is not so obsessed with the round ball that it cannot excel in other sports.