While Nehe Milner-Skudder was forced to leave the field with a calf injury during the first of the World Cup semi-finals Steve Hansen, the All Blacks head coach, expressed confidence that there were no fresh injury concerns affecting his side going into the final week of the tournament.

That only accentuated the significant advantage the defending champions have been handed in terms of their preparations, not least because his wish that the teams meeting one another in the second semi-final would bash themselves to bits was more than fulfilled.

Foer their part the Wallabies looked to have a few injury concerns as their two most influential backs both departed the fray early.

However Michael Cheika, their head coach, was making reasonably optimistic noises about both.

He explained that Matt Giteau, had suffered a groin niggle but reckoned that the early indications are that it is not something that will keep the veteran midfield play-maker out of the final.

Israel Folau’s departure from the field was, meanwhile, all part of the plan.

“We knew the ankle was going to fatigue so we had always intended to take him off at that stage,” said Cheika.

It has been very much a case of squad management for the Wallaby coach over the past bruising month and to that end he was also delighted that David Pocock, another key man who, like Folau, had missed the quarter-final meeting with Scotland because of injury, had more than proven his fitness in making a huge contribution throughout the 80 minutes, his breakdown and cover defensive work of truly exceptional standard.

While the Springboks meanwhile have the upper hand when it comes to physical freshness ahead of the third place play-off, Argentina may just have a psychological edge ahead of that match on the basis of their greater desire to play in it.

Heyeneke Meyer, South Africa’s head coach, had claimed after their semi-final defeat that he was not interested in anything other than winning the tournament.

However Agustin Creevy, the Pumas captain, said he was bemused by that.

“I don’t know why he (Meyer) said that. I’d rather be in the top three than fourth. We will not be world champions so our next goal will to be third,” said Creevy.

“We are very sad but there shouldn’t be any reproach. We need to get our heads up and think about Friday. We need to get over this defeat and start again because we want to finish in the top three.”