It was the kick he had practised in his backyard as a six year-old. Seventy four minutes gone, his All Blacks battling to hold off a Wallaby comeback in the World Cup final, this to put his side two scores clear.

Did he get it? Of course he got it.

This was Dan Carter, slayer of lions, returning hero, poster boy next door… rugby god.

It was, then, the dream end to rugby’s greatest ever tournament, its organisers having experienced their Hallowe’en horrors three weeks early.

For the first time ever two best teams in this tournament and, currently, in the sport were meeting in the final and, to paraphrase the boys from ‘Crowded House’ the band over which they quibble regarding ownership, they had brought the weather with them, or at least the Aussies had.

Bright blue sunlit skies greeted the teams on another glorious English autumn afternoon and, in spite of that early exit by the hosts, the even better news for this tournament and the sport was that the commercial outcome was in line with the most optimistic forecasts.

That the cheapest tickets for this event cost more than £100 had attracted considerable criticism, but had they been cheaper it begs the question as to whether that would simply have seen even more profiteering through secondary sites which were reportedly re-selling them for as much as £60,000 as a full house of 80,125 packed English rugby’s headquarters.

It is all a very far cry from 1987 when these two nations hosted the inaugural tournament and there were crowds of as few as 2000 at Lancaster Park in Christchurch which is considered to be the spiritual home of the sport, yet it is remarkable that has taken this long for the antipodean neighbours to meet in a World Cup final as they might have done all those years ago but for the brilliance of a Serge Blanco inspired France.

Remarkable, too, that this was the first time ever that the two teams considered the best in the world in a footballing code that, much more than the association version, leans heavily towards rewarding the superior side, leaving rather less to chance, had met in a final.

The All Blacks status as world’s number one has, of course, been indisputable in the four years since they won this trophy for a second time since they had lost just three of 54 matches in the interim.

Yet not only by denying them the Rugby Championship title for the first time since 2011 had these Wallabies had earned the right to contend for the number one spot in the world rankings, beating seven of the other nine teams in the world’s top 10 in the last four months, five of them in the course of this tournament.

The winners would be the world’s official number one side as well as world champions and the first to win this tournament three times. New Zealand had the added incentive of trying to become the first to successfully defend it.

They found the inspiration to do so from their famous five of Carter, Richie McCaw, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Keven Mealamu, who were playing their last Tests in careers that have seen them accrue a collected 589 caps.

Though he came off the bench Keven Mealamu’s main contribution was ceremonial as he led an emotional Haka as he so often has.

Carter, thigh quite heavily strapped, had already scored 11 points in setting up the 16-3 half-time lead that put his side in charge before those late kicks that secured the win.

On a day when it took phenomenal skill to unlock this magnificent Wallaby defence, Smith was first to do so with a brilliant sleight of hand reverse pass that wrong-footed the defence just enough to let McCaw give Nehe Milner-Skudder the scoring pass.

When his half-time replacement Sonny Bill Williams then produced another, with a basketball style off-load, which Nonu blasted onto to charge away for their second try.

Australian great David Pocock, the player of the tournament, did his bit to raise this game above the ordinary too, spear-heading their defensive effort brilliantly even before he got what would, for any other side, have been no more than a consolation try as they pulled it back to a 21-10.

That these resilient Wallabies sniffed their chance and got back to within four points with most of the final quarter remaining was utterly astonishing, but Carter calmed Kiwi nerves first with a 42 metre drop goal which ensured that the Wallabies would need two more scores to beat them, then that match clinching penalty.

That his heir apparent Beauden Barrett then claimed the try that stretched the scoreline to a slightly flattering 34-17 perhaps represented a warning that even as players who are long established as Kiwi rugby legends depart the scene, they may be no easier to beat in the foreseeable future.

The sky, meanwhile, had darkened to the appropriate hue. Never has the colour black shone so brightly.