Some 28 years after they came together to stage the inaugural World Cup Australia and New Zealand will meet one another in a final for the first time which seems remarkable in itself.

Between them these great antipodean rivals have contested six of the previous seven finals and for most of that time they have, along with South Africa, been two of the three best teams in the world, but one way or another they have never reached this stage together.

There have been three previous meetings in the tournament and, for all that the All Blacks will go into this match as odds-on favourites they add an extra dimension to proceedings because Australia have won two of them.

The first of those meetings was at the 1991 tournament when the Wallabies won the semi-final 19-9 in Dublin and, perhaps ominously, they went on that year to win the tournament for the first time at Twickenham no less.

Twelve years were to elapse before they met again, once more in the semi-final and the Wallabies, very much the underdogs, got John Mitchell, the All Blacks coach, the sack with their 22-10 win in Sydney which took them, as defending champions, to their third final.

Another eight years on and the All Blacks finally earned the upper hand in yet another semi-final with their 20-6 win in Auckland which set them up for their tournament win.

That Australia have managed to beat them in these big matches, however, feeds the school of thought that for all the All Blacks status in the sport their neighbours, very much the big brother in the region in all matters other than rugby union, have the belief that is required to have a chance, that they can beat them, just as the Springboks did on Saturday.

This, too, is a Wallaby side that came into the World Cup as the reigning Southern Hemsiphere champions having beaten the All Blacks just a couple of months ago on their way to winning the Rugby Championship.

Asked about that yesterday, however, Michael Cheika, the Wallaby coach, was sanguine.

“I don’t like looking into the past,” he said.

“If I was to think about that too much I would have to think about the previous nine matches in which we didn’t beat them.”

His was the trickier immediate task when asked questions ahead of the final because he could not avoid discussing the opponent.

By contrast, when asked who they would prefer to play Steve Hansen, the All Black coach, was able to say simply on Saturday evening: “"I don't care. We are in it. Whoever we get will be very, very tough. We would be very foolish to think that whoever turns up next weekend won't have plenty to give to the game. I just want them to bash each other to bits tomorrow."

It was the right answer in many ways, not least because it reinforced the message every coach likes to send out that he is heavily focused on his own side.

However the suspicion has to be that history and recent form would have meant that he would have favoured a win for the Pumas.

As for how badly affected the Wallabies might be as a result of the effort they had to expend, he got his wish in every sense.

The pace of the second semi-final was ferocious and one fewer day to recover might prove telling for the Australians who have had no respite at any point in the course of the last month.

Every match they have played since the relatively gentle opening to their pool has had so much at stake and they have repeatedly been tested to the limit.

How much have they got left with which to take on their great adversaries, then?

“I reckon we’ve got about 80 minutes left in the tank… maybe just a little bit more,” said Cheika, presumably remembering that a couple of World Cup finals have had to go to extra time.