The eighth Rugby World Cup will be remembered for its yet-to-be-crowned winner and for the disappointing performances of France, England, Wales and Ireland. Only Scotland of the main northern hemisphere nations over-performed. Scotland is a weak team but the Scottish players can rightly hold their heads high and say, "When it mattered most we played our best". Good for them.
For the feeble four the correct assessment divides them into two groups. When it mattered most England and France simply fell apart. England demonstrated scant understanding of what the modern game of rugby is all about and France, as a very senior French administrator said to me this week, showed they had "no talent, no coaching and no guts". 
Wales and Ireland, on the other hand, both played more or less to their ability. Unfortunately that ability was fairly low. Given their limited ball-playing, space-creating, try-scoring ability, they both brought to the tournament game plans focused on winning northern hemisphere local derbies. Wales had to beat England and Ireland had to beat France to progress and they did. But all those scrummaging sessions, all those video-review sessions and all those intricately wrought backline moves so carefully designed to pick out defenders to run into, set a limit on try-scoring capability that condemned them to be quarter-finalists and no more.
It is useful in assessing teams and probable results to think of the players in each team in two groups: sustainers and creators. Creators are the players that create pressure and space on the field and hence opportunities for their team to score points. Sustainers are the players that relentlessly and accurately execute the demands of their playing position and no more. The Wallabies and All Blacks are full of players who will execute the demands of their position relentlessly and accurately, so in assessing the probable result we need to focus on the creators.
The creators are mostly positionally determined, although the occasional freak in another position can be decisive. The creators are numbers nine, 10 and 15, at least one of the midfield pair, at least one of the wingers and at least one of the loose forwards. I don't have the space here to describe how the creators create pressure and space but if you are reading this you probably have a fair idea yourself.
How do the creators in the Wallabies and All Black teams compare? Israel Folau came into the tournament as the most dangerous and creative fullback in the world. His injury and the mismanagement of it - he should not have played the quarter-final or the semi-final - now rule him out of any significant influence on Saturday. All Black Ben Smith is in the form of his life.
The Wallabies have one creative winger - Drew Mitchell - and the All Blacks have two - Nehe Milner-Skudder and Julian Savea. Matt Giteau and Ma'a Nonu are the two creators in midfield. It is not likely that Bernard Foley will ever be the player Dan Carter was, but Carter is not the player he was either. Aaron Smith comfortably shades Will Genia on current form. David Pocock and Michael Hooper are both creators in the Wallaby back-row and in great form. Richie McCaw has been hugely effective in creating pressure in the past but not so much now. Kieran Reid has not shown the form we know he is capable of. His influence or lack of it might well be a swing factor in the result.
What about the wildcards: the players who play in positions not requiring creativity, but who produce it anyway? The All Blacks have two - Brodie Retallick and Dane Coles. The Wallabies have none.
David Kirk is executive chairman of the Hoyts Group. He was captain of the 1987 Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks team.