Australia 29 Argentina 15

That the nations which co-hosted the first ever World Cup have never met in the final seems strange in itself as is Australia’s record of never having won this tournament outside the United Kingdom and never having failed to when it is.

For all that the defending champions will be favourites next weekend, then, it is becoming ever harder to discount the spirit that has brought these Wallabies victory after victory in the past month on the ground where their compatriots lifted the trophy by beating then hosts England 24 years ago.

New Zealand’s status was acknowledged from the Wallaby camp, however as they were reminded of last week’s claim by Heyneke Meyer, the Springbok coach whose side came so close to beating the All Blacks in the first semi-final, that the Kiwis are the best team ever to have played the game.

“They’ve had some pretty special teams haven’t they and they are the world’s number one for a reason. We’ve only beaten them once in the last 10. They’ll feel they’ve got our measure. It’s up to us to do something special to just be competitive,” said Michael Cheika.

Stephen Moore, their captain, then added: “They’re currently the number one team in the world and it’s a World Cup final so we think we’ll have to play our best game of the tournament.”

After what Cheika reckoned had been their only failure to do so in this tournament when facing Scotland, they continued the upward progression towards that in the semi-final and in the end the margin in this semi-final was the most comfortable they have enjoyed since their ejection of the current England squad from their own tournament. That and a four-nil try count which included an Adam Ashley-Cooper hat-trick, belied what won them this match, though because as against Wales a fortnight earlier, it was their refusal to concede a try no matter what was thrown at them that decided this match.

Something close to a world record for a team producing line breaks without managing to cross the opposition line must have been generated in the course of the 80 minutes as the Pumas recovered from what had been an abysmal start.

It was as if a combination of their determination to start with the gusto they had shown in overwhelming Ireland in the first 10 minutes, had combined with World Cup jitters to see them thrown the ball around wildly and it was telling that when Rob Simmons claimed the interception try that opened the scoring for the Wallabies in 70 seconds it was their second opportunity to do so, Drew Mitchell having just failed to hang on when making a similar intervention moments earlier.

When, after the first of the five penalties that were ultimately all the Pumas had to show for their frenzied and frequently wonderfully creative efforts in attack, the Wallabies scored their second try, the first of Ashley-Cooper’s, sent over in the right corner by a Bernard Foley double miss pass following a scrum in front of the Pumas posts, it looked like they may dominate.

Instead from that point the Pumas, whose jitters had also contributed to that as Santiago Cordero had dropped the ball in attempting to take a quick mark, then settled down.

Their verve and dynamism that further demonstrated just why it is so vital to infuse the elite end of world rugby with new blood, elevated this to a superior spectacle to the previous day’s slug out between the game’s two great super-powers, but they were dealt a severe blow when lock Tomas Lavanini was harshly sin-binned for an alleged armless chop tackle, allowing the Pumas supporters and nautrals in the crowd to voice their disapproval.

With typical ruthlessness the Wallabies capitalised while he was off, Matt Giteau this time throwing the miss pass that sent Ashley-Cooper into the left corner this time.

After they turned 19-9 ahead two Sanchez penalties to one from Foley made it a single score game and Daniel Hourcade, the Pumas head coach, reckoned it would have been a different outcome had his men managed to get to the line just once.

Instead that under the most vigorous interrogation, they came up with all the defensive answers before wrapping things up with one of the tries of the tournament, Drew Mitchell receiving the ball on the left wing, making ground then cutting infield and covering some 50 metres before, as the sixth would be tackler got a grip of him, throwing out a pass which Ashley-Cooper seized to complete his hat-trick.

There was a hint of a forward pass in what was a crucial score, but Hourcade offered no complaint.

“Those things happen in the game. It may have been it may have not. It’s in the past. We just have to accept it. The referees’ decisions cannot be questioned,” he said.

And so Argentina bowed elegantly out of title contention having added hugely to this greatest ever rugby tournament.