South Africa's Willie Le Roux relishing 'amazing' RWC final with New Zealand

South Africa's Willie Le Roux is relishing the "amazing" prospect of facing New Zealand in the World Cup final in Paris.

Saturday's showdown at the Stade de France is the first time the two nations have met in the final since 1995, when hosts South Africa triumphed 15-12 after extra-time and then-President Nelson Mandela presented the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar.

The Springboks also lifted the trophy in 2007 and 2019 after beating England in the final on both occasions and edged past the same opposition in last week's semi-final to set up the mouthwatering clash with the All Blacks.

"I was six years old in 1995 and I can just remember my dad and mum screaming in the house and I couldn't understand exactly what was going on," Le Roux said.

"But to be able to have a chance to play in the final against them would be amazing.

"There's always respect [between the teams]. The rivalry goes back a long time. The games that have been played against each other, always it's hard fought and after the game you can see the guys, they gave it their all.

"It's just a hard battle out there, there are no friends when you are on the field."

Le Roux's celebrations in front of England players when the final whistle blew in their semi-final sparked an unseemly scuffle, but the 34-year-old was keen to play down the incident on Wednesday.

"It was just emotion," he said. "I think I had the same emotion as everyone back home. I was excited.

"The margins in those big games are so small, I just jumped up out of emotion, of happiness as we'd just got through a World Cup semi-final.

"There was no disrespect to any of the English players. I think they thought there was and I immediately told them there wasn't and then it stopped. There was nothing,