Whoever wins the Rugby World Cup final in Paris on Saturday one thing is certain, one left-foot kicker will leave his indelible mark on the tournament.

If England are to beat South Africa the key match up will be between Jonny Wilkinson and Percy Montgomery, Jonny versus Monty, the saint and the peacock. The way England are playing they are not in danger of running up a cricket score so they need to stay close until the last ten minutes and win by a kick.

The two play different positions, Wilkinson a fly half, Montgomery now settled at full back. But both kick the goals and it will be Wilkinson who will examine Montgomery under some huge up and unders. Times have changed and although Montgomery still looks like the beach bleach blonde more suited to strutting in Camps Bay, reports that he is still more concerned with coiffeurs and manicures are wide of the mark. He used to be the butt of jokes even in South Africa for his gaffes in the green and gold, but at 33, the Cape Townian is older, wiser and just as hairsome, he stands on the edge of rugby immortality.

Montgomery may not be the obsessive compulsive like Wilkinson, but on the field he has been an arch professional ‘go to’ man for South Africa so far. The only thing more immaculate than his hair has been his kicking and seven from seven attempts brought seventeen points and control to South Africa on Sunday against Argentina. It means that England may not be able count on their customary Jonny advantage factor. However, whether Monty can do it in the cauldron of a World Cup final is unknown. England know that Jonny can.

Wilkinson is the record points scorer in international and World Cup history but Montgomery is the leading points scorer in the tournament and does not seem to be having the same issue with over-inflated World Cup balls as Wilkinson and other have had.

England cannot expect any Stirling Mortlock-like charitable misses the way Montgomery has been going. Montgomery has 93 points and he has a tournament kicking percentage of 79.55%. He has missed just one of 14 penalty goal attempts (92.9%) and hit 22 of his 30 conversions (73.3%). Montgomery, the most capped fullback in world rugby, most capped Springbok player and their leading scorer, has yet to miss a kick at the Stade de France in the World Cup. He also returned 100 percent against England.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson, is third in the competition with 61 points behind Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi. That is explained by Wilkinson missing two games with his ankle injury (including the 36-0 drubbing by South Africa in the second round of the pool stage). But his percentage is just 60.7%, 20 per cent down on his career average.

Despite his match-winning kicks against Australia and France, he was fallible early in the game and against Australia he kicked four from seven attempts – 57%.

Interestingly though, Wilkinson is easily the most successful drop-kicker with five from nine attempts (55.6%) compared to Montgomery’s two misses. In fact South Africa have not scored a dropped goal all tournament with Butch James, the fly half, and Francois Steyn also missing two attempts each. England know that Jonny can. Off both feet.

Rugby is supposed to be a game of odd-shaped balls, but Wilkinson, like Dan Carter, has been perturbed by the flight of some of the Gilbert-manufactured "Synergie" balls chosen for this competition. Wilkinson rejected a ball he was given to take a 47th-minute penalty after recognising it was not an official match ball before going on to make a successful kick to help England into the final.

It is not all in Wilkinson’s mind and even the match balls have been irregular. They are meant to be pumped to the 'optimum' level of 9.5lbs per square inch. England claimed that the balls for their opening match, against the United States in Lens last month, showed 10.5lbs per square inch on the pressure gauge and that others may have been even more pressurised. After tests the World Cup organisers agreed some had been over-pumped. Chris Paterson, the Scotland fly-half, had no problems kicking 100 per cent with 17 from 17. But maybe Wilkinson really has been more unlucky.

Montgomery has been cast as the hero before only for it all to go wrong. He was moved to fly half as part of a grand vision of running South African rugby in 2000, but he came to symbolise both the dash and flakiness of the Sprinbok rugby then.