South Africa 18 New Zealand 20: All Blacks look well set to make Rugby World Cup final statement

No matter who they play New Zealand will be favourites to retain the World Cup

New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter smiles after beating South Africa 20-18 (Getty Images)

It was written by Frank Keating of the Bristol rugby team in the 1950s and 60s, who had a non-kicking fly-half that “he inspired his mates to run with him through every tackler as though all 15 of them were demented electronic pinballs”. The wonderful All Blacks have plenty of that all-out attack about them, but so much more besides as they showed in knocking South Africa out of yesterday’s World Cup semi-final, and they will be expected to do something similar again in the final next Saturday.

Whoever emerges from today’s contest between Australia and Argentina will have a very different history with the All Blacks. The record possessed by Australia in World Cup ties with their trans-Tasman rivals is two wins and one loss. The Wallabies also won a Test between them in Sydney just this summer, with David Pocock at No 8 and Michael Hooper at flanker pulling off their best ‘Pooper’ back-row mayhem. Argentina, by contrast, have never beaten New Zealand, and lost the opening pool match of this tournament to them at Wembley, by a fairly definitive margin.

History will be at stake, and for New Zealand two World Cup firsts: no team has retained the Webb Ellis trophy; and no team has won it three times. All good Kiwis may be tempted already to have the names of Richie McCaw (right), Kieran Read, Dan Carter and company reeling off the tongue, the way England football fans can recite “Banks, Cohen, Moore, Charlton”.

Any worries? New Zealand have yet to win a final on the road. Their two previous victories were at home in Auckland, in the inaugural tournament of 1987 and four years ago. In their only final on the road, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1995, they were beaten by Joel Stransky’s drop goal in extra time.

Otherwise, they look in fantastic shape, rounded out and battle-hardened after fighting through yesterday’s close-run verdict against a Springbok team with powerful proficiency at the breakdown; it was much more useful to the All Blacks than their facile quarter-final thrashing of an eventually insipid France in Cardiff.

Carter, the fly-half master has never been shy of putting boot to ball. Gaining territory at the right moments has always been part of his tactical make-up, quite rightly, and he did this yesterday fantastically better than Handre Pollard and South Africa’s other kickers. There seemed reason to agonise for Kiwi supporters when too many All Black attackers put boot to ball but, over the course of 80 minutes, the team coached with huge worldly-wisdom by Steve Hansen, Ian Foster and Wayne Smith knew it would be a matter of inches not winning by miles. The second try finished by Beauden Barrett was a belter of strategic precision, not least because Barrett had just been introduced as a substitute for Nehe Milner-Skudder with a couple of years of preparation as a utility back behind him. Planning ahead had paid off.

Neither Australia nor Argentina will be as fearsome as the Boks at close quarters. The idea of the All Blacks blowing this now seems the unlikely side of incredible. They might lean on Kieran Read to clean up his act in mauls, and Aaron Smith at scrum-half to regain a sharpness he lacked this time. The flipside of those two indifferent performances in a magnificent team, who have lost just three times in 53 Tests since winning the World Cup in 2011, is they are most unlikely to make those same mistakes again.