MA'A Nonu capped his last ever appearance for the All Blacks with a stunning try to help his country lift the World Cup.

In his 103rd and final cap, the centre latched onto a Sonny Bill Williams offload and scorched upfield to score the try that would give New Zealand an 18-point buffer in the final.

Despite an Australian fightback, which saw the deficit reduced to four points thanks to David Pocock and Tevita Kurindrani tries, the All Blacks pulled away to secure a 34-17 win.

It means New Zealand go down in history as the first team ever to retain the William Webb Ellis Trophy as a perfect bow out for Nonu, his centre-partner Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu and possibly captain Richie McCaw.

"It has its meaning in terms of personal meaning," said the 33-year-old.

"But I've got to thank my family really for being my cornerstone throughout my career and big-ups to the boys like Richie, Dan and especially my midfield partner Conrad.

"We've played a lot together and we might not play again together.

"We might see each other and play against each other in December or January."

Nonu starred in the 2011 triumph in front of his home fans, although he saw a conveyor belt of fly-halves playing inside him as Carter, Aaron Cruden and Colin Slade all succumb to injury.

It meant Stephen Donald was called up to slap over a winning penalty against France in the final, but the emotions at the final whistle was almost identical for Nonu.

He said: "It's a similar feeling but I think up until this week we just had the focus of just really putting everything out there on the pitch especially in terms of what was happening after with players leaving.

"We didn't want that to get in the way and out main motivation was to play for each other."

It looked like the centre, who was playing with a new partner in the second half with Conrad Smith replaced by Sonny Bill Williams, has sealed the game with his try.

And he was full of praise for the cross-code international.

"It was a brilliant pass, eh," said Nonu.

"He's the best passer.

"I was surprised to get through really and just tried my best.

"In the first half we just wanted to be direct and look after the pill.

"I thought they defended well in the first 20 minutes and we couldn't get over the line and they turned us over a couple of times but we managed to break them at the end of the first half."

The only Kiwi wobble came with Ben Smith in the sin bin for an illegal tackle on Drew Mitchell and Nonu praised the way his team dealt with the Australian advantage.

He said: "I guess it was an 80 minute game really but we kicked off to a good start and discipline played its role getting down to 14 men, but that's the way the Australians play.

"They never lie down, they never quit and they came back and scored two good tries to put our backs against the wall and we just had to climb back in.

"It was pretty tough and it surprised us a bit in the backfield.

"They made the most of that and skinned us on the outside.

"I just thought we were short a few times out wide and we just had to work hard.

"It seemed that's all Australia could do really and we just had to try and hold out until Ben came back on.

"They scored a try off the lineout drive and then it was a few bad decisions in terms of kicking downfield.

"You can't kick it to Izzy or Beale like that and they I thought they put in a good kick through, Foley got it and that was that."

Dan Carter stepped up to deliver a sucker-punch dropgoal from 40m and a 50m plus penalty to claw back the initiative before Beauden Barrett put the icing on the cake with a try two minutes from time.

And Nonu was never in doubt as the World Player of the Year coolly lined up the two shots at goal.

He said: "I'll back DC any day really, it's just a matter of him backing himself.

"I think he thrived in the last few weeks really in terms of self-confidence and I think he really wanted to have a good World Cup for himself and he did that."