For a tournament boasting innovations such as a panel of referees using videos to review whether a yellow card should be upgraded to red and a clock on the big screens around the stadiums to show the time remaining for a penalty or transformation to be kicked, it was pure old school for the final: New Zealand v South Africa.
"C'est toujours la même chanson - as locals say for the same old, same old.
The two sides - with six titles between them from the 10 tournaments - have contested all the rugby union World Cups including the inaugural competition in 1987.
South Africa won 12-11 on Saturday night to lift a record fourth crown.
Back on 8 September, following France's 27-13 victory over New Zealand at the Stade de France, there were understandable hopes that the hosts would feature in the final. Ireland - as the world's top ranked team and European champions - were also slated as contenders.
But both sides went out to Saturday night's finalists during the last eight. France lost to South Africa by a point and New Zealand saw off the Irish 28-24.
The games that pitted the world's top four sides together followed by New Zealand's romp past Argentina in the semis highlighted the folly of conducting the draw for the 2023 tournament in December 2020.
Eagerness
World Rugby, the organisers of the World Cup, were upbraided for the move at the time. Bosses at the global game's ruling body insisted that it was important for the host cities to know which teams they would be receiving.
By September 2023, Ireland, South Africa, France and New Zealand were the leading lights and in Groups A and B. Inevitably, two would not even reach the semis.
It's safe to assume that World Rugby would have got away with its eagerness had France not lost.
The defeat amplified scrutiny on every aspect of the event as partisan pundits and commentators gnashed at the outrage.
Incompetent refereeing, World Rugby's anti-French bias and dastardly opponents were among some of the more reasonable wails.
At least France lost in the quarters. When England hosted the event in 2015, they failed to emerge from the group stages.
Success
Four years later, England were runners-up and after a disastrous prelude to the 2023 World Cup in which they won only two of their nine matches, they finished with one loss in seven to claim the bronze medal following a 26-23 victory over Argentina on Friday night at the Stade de France.
Shortly after receiving his medal, England head coach Steve Borthwick praised Engtland's consistency in the tournaments and promised to undertake an objective review of how the team performed at the World Cup.
If he were to emerge from that survey with the belief that glee awaits from kicking the ball high and hoping for opponents not to catch it properly, England's hopes of the latter stages in Australia in four years appear slender.
The men from the land that invented the sport seem at the moment to be scared of expansiveness. The Argentines offered wit as well as verve and captured the voices of the neutrals among the 78,000 fans in the crowd.
During the tournament, players, coaches and visiting fans have paid fulsome tributes to the atmosphere at the venues around the country during the seven weeks of competition.
"Obviously playing in front of 63,000 people is overwhelming when you play your club rugby in front of maybe a 1,000," said Namibia's Louis van der Westhuizen after France obliterated his side 96-0 in their Group A encounter in Marseille on 21 September.
Ambitions
The Africans lost all four games in the pool to return home with yet more intimate and painful knowledge of the highest level.
"You feel you can be there," said Namibia's André van der Bergh after the side's defeat to Uruguay.
"It's just you know that the hours that these guys in France and New Zealand put in is a seed that you can't sow and so you can't expect the harvest.
"You know you are trying but you are not getting in the repititions. We know we have the traits necessary to be successful, but the gap is still there."
Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui also spoke about the need for "tier two" countries such as his to play the likes of France, New Zealand and South Africa outside the World Cup.
His team pulled off the shock of the tournament with a defeat of Australia on 17 September in Saint-Etienne and eventualy went out to England in the quarters in Marseille.
After losing their opening game in Group C match to Wales in Bordeaux, Raiwalui said: "We played England at Twickenham before the World Cup and Wales here. These are the games we want to play more often.
"The more often we get these games, the better we get. We need that consistency of matches and playing at the highest level and we have shown that we get better." And lo and behold, they beat Australia. A link?
Innovation
World Rugby bosses have responded to the pleas of the smaller countries with a revamp of the international calendar.
There will be a new 12-team men’s biennial tournament which will replace traditional tours and kick off in 2026.
It will feature the teams from the Six Nations in Europe - France, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy as well as the four teams from the Rugby Championship - South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina - and two teams yet to be selected. But it is understood Japan and Fiji will be invited to the top table.
The Pacific Nations Cup will also be revamped from 2024.
It will involve Fiji, Samoa, Tonga as well as Canada, the United States and Japan. Split into two groups, there will be a round robin format and the top two will play in the semis. The third-placed teams wil contest a play-off for fifth and sixth.
Samoa head coach Seilala Mapusua said: “I am excited at the potential of the expanded Pacific Nations Cup as it provides important high quality fixture certainty to grow and develop Samoa.
“This means we will have more Test matches and more time together as a team which we have lacked in the past. This new environment will enable us to keep growing and developing as we look towards the World Cup 2027 in Australia.”
Challenge
But the changes fail to address the need for regular matches between the titans and the putative minnows.
Players' union, International Rugby Players, expressed reservations about the concepts.
“We must recognise that the newly proposed model is better than the status quo and represents progress in the game," said chief executive Omar Hassanein.
"Having said this, we feel that more detail needs to be provided in relation to the increased opportunities for teams ranked 13 to 24, to pitch themselves against "tier-one" opposition.”
France's 2023 World Cup showed the need for fundamental changes before the expansion to 24 teams at the World Cup in 2027.
Group stage thrashings à la France's 96-0 versus Namibia or Ireland's 82-8 against Romania prove just how little the rugby authorities have done since the first World Cup in 1987 to develop the sport globally. The big guns remain in a field of their own.
That familiarity though has offered benefits to the lesser seen outfits.
"The French crowds have been amazing," said Argentina coach Michael Cheika.
"They have been at every game and watching teams like Japan, Samoa and Chile. People like to watch them play.
"If the authorities allow that part of the game to grow, then rugby will be in great shape.
"But if they block them and don't let them get in, then it will be same."
Time to bet, then, on Namibia v Portugal final in 2027.
