As predicted here as soon as Wales were knocked out of the tournament, Nigel Owens will referee the World Cup final and there could be no better man for the job.

The little Welshman has been the outstanding referee in rugby union for many years now and has been exemplary at this tournament during which the difficulty of the job in a sport in which offences are committed by both sides at almost every collision zone, has once again been demonstrated.

Owens exudes authority and while some find his manner irksome and even patronising, it seems clear that he is greatly respected by the players.

He has, in recent years, come into his own in the era of the increasing involvement of television match officials (TMOs), handling the need to use them to double check on key moments in matches with common sense as he, too, watches the big screen, often makes up his own mind before the TMO has had a chance to offer his analysis and explains to them what he intends to do, sometimes not even giving them the chance to disagree.

He was at his best in this tournament when interrupting a TMO who seemed to be preparing to recommend the sin-binning, or perhaps worse, of Louis Picamoles during France’s thrashing by the All Blacks, when explaining that while contact had been made with a clench fist rubbing across a face it was neither a punch nor was there any suggestion that anything untoward had happened around the eyes, so a penalty and a warning would suffice.

There is no question who is in charge and, while there are no guarantees that he will not make important mistakes this weekend, but the vast majority will agree that a meeting between the two best teams in the world is set to be overseen by the best referee in the game.

It seems, too, increasingly likely that, other than the problems both have had at loosehead prop in the course of the last fortnight, the teams will be very close to full strength with Michael Cheika, Australia’s head coach, making further optimistic about the condition of full-back Israel Folau.