Dan Carter puts ghosts aside to face ‘final’ with France

Dan Carter had hardly taken his seat for New Zealand’s press conference at the University of Swansea yesterday when he was whisked back to the Millennium Stadium in 2007 when France overcame the All Blacks.

It is a game that remains one of the most famous World Cup encounters of all time.

It is also one that has become ingrained in the national psyche – there was, by way of contrast, no mention of the French win against them in 1999 – with one Gallic inquisitor asking if the current crew were somehow haunted by the “ghosts” of that day eight years ago.