Told that Eddie Jones had suggested he was set to enjoy a fairytale finish to his magnificent career Dan Carter was right to be wary.

The head coach of Japan, but more pertinently the man who guided the Wallabies to a shock win over the All Blacks in the 2003 semi-final when Carter, in his first year as an All Black, was on the bench, can be a mischievous wee devil as the All Black play-maker well knows.

“In a final like this nothing is guaranteed,” he replied.

“It’s going to be a fantastic occasion and both teams will be out there to die for the cause.”

There are elite sportsmen who feel as if a part of them dies when they have to end their careers and whether the All Blacks win or lose this final many New Zealanders will mourn the passing of this one in particular.

Richie McCaw, his only contemporary who is held in comparable regard is also set to retire of course, but when he lifted the trophy in 2011, ending New Zealand’s 24 year quest to reclaim it after their success at the inaugural event in 1987, Carter’s absence, as a result of a groin tear suffered during the tournament, was the most glaring.

Furthermore he is very much the storybook hero, his demeanour and bearing as exemplary off the field as on it as Steve Hansen, the All Blacks coach, pointed out.

“I don’t think a guy like Dan who has played more than 100 Test matches has his career defined by one game,” he said.

“His career’s defined and it’s one of greatness. He’s added to the All Black jersey in many, many ways and over many, many Test matches. His career has already been written in the history books.

“He’s done it in a nice way too. He’s a pretty humble bloke.

“The other thing I admire about him is that he’s gone through a bit of adversity in the last couple of years. It would have been easy to walk away and say enough’s enough because he’s done everything in the game, but he didn’t, he wanted to finish playing well and he’s done that.

“The other good thing is that he’s just a normal good bloke who likes a beer, likes a laugh and is good company.”

Hansen drew comparison with some of the great All Black play-makers of the past, too, noting that Carter has added a new dimension to the role when compared with Grant Fox, their 1987 World Cup winner and Andrew Mehrtens, who called the shots for the great 1995 team that was beaten in the final in South Africa.

“He tackles,” said Hansen, with a malicious grin.

“I don’t think Foxy made a tackle in his life and to be honest Mehrts didn’t make too many either.”

The contrast between those two is telling, though, because there was ultimately a sense of a destiny unfulfilled for Mehrtens and his team-mates.

In that context Carter, who replaced Mehrtens for the Canterbury Crusaders and the All Blacks, admits that when, after a fine recovery in 2012 from his World Cup disappointment he then suffered further injury woes, there was a fear that this day might never come.

“There were moments there where I thought it might be the end, but to fight through that and be where I am today I’m pretty grateful for that,” he said.

For the rest of us, though, there is that sense that this was the game that Carter was born to play and he admitted that he has been preparing for it mentally since sporting infancy.

"I have won a few World Cups in my back yard when I was five or six years old. It’s something I used to love to do was put myself in those positions,” he said.

He and his team-mates have, then, done so once again and there is no need for Carter to fantasise about it as he has for the best part of 30 years.

That said, as Eddie Jones and his fellow Australians might just be inclined to remind their Kiwi cousins, the Brothers Grimm wrote some of those old stories and a fairytale finish does not necessarily mean there will be a happy ending for the central characters.