After an incredible 80 minutes of rugby, New Zealand have given themselves the opportunity to become the first back-to-back winners of the Rugby World Cup.
Trailing 12-7 at half-time, New Zealand fired back to win the game by two points on the back of a brilliant performance from Dan Carter.
South Africa gave everything they had, and fell just short after being outscored two tries to nil by an All Black side who will take the field in next Saturday's final against either Australia or Argentina who meet tomorrow.
Kaino powers over to give Kiwis early lead
After a week of pretty timid build-up, it didn't take either side any time at all to get fired up with a number of huge collisions in the opening minutes.
Kieran Read was the first man penalised on the day after being offside at the ruck, allowing Handre Pollard to slot over the first points of the game in the third minute.
After the Boks quick start, New Zealand fired back to score the first try of the game through flanker, Jerome Kaino.
Some excellent hands in the midfield from forwards Joe Moody and Sam Whitelock got the Kiwis in position to launch an attack, with the ball eventually finding it's way out to Richie McCaw who looped a pass to Kaino, with the back-rower brushing off the tackle of Lood de Jager to go over in the corner.
The conversion was added by Carter at the second time of asking, after Bryan Habana had started his charge-down early during Carter's first, missed, attempt.
Pollard punishes Kiwi indiscipline
Despite New Zealand holding the early lead, it was their opponents who were dominating the close quarters, with Francois Louw a constant menace at ruck-time.
As the penalties started to stack up, so did the South African score, with Pollard adding a pair of penalties to overturn the deficit and hand the Springboks a 9-7 lead midway through the half.
Boks turn screw after Kaino yellow
Steve Hansen's side were well on top in terms of possession and territory, but they could not breach the Bok line with a number of kicks close to the line when good hands seemed to be in order.
Carter failed to punish South Africa after Schalk Burger was penalised for a no-arm tackle, with the Kiwi fly-half hitting the post, allowing the Boks to relieve the pressure.
After containing New Zealand for so long, Kaino cynically kicked the ball at the back of a ruck, leading to three more Pollard points and ten minutes in the bin for the half's try scorer.
Carter drops goal as All Blacks survive 14-man period
Starting the second-half with a man advantage, Heyneke Meyer's men failed to take advantage with a number of mistakes letting the Kiwis off.
With Kaino warming-up on the sideline, a messy lineout saw the ball come out on New Zealand's side, with Aaron Smith passing back to Carter who nonchanantly stroked over a drop-goal to reduce the deficit to two points.
Habana sent to bin, following Barrett five-pointer
Having failed to capitalise on the Kaino sin-bin, South Africa coughed up possession close to their line allowing the All Blacks to mount an attack close to the line.
After some heavy carrying, the ball came wide to Ma'a Nonu who ran strongly towards the line, drawing a defending a popping the pass to Beauden Barrett who went over in the corner, just two minutes after coming on for Nehe Milner-Skudder.
It got worse for the Springboks in the aftermath of the try, with Habana sent to the sin-bin for a similar indiscretion to that of Kaino as New Zealand took control of the scoreboard following Carter's conversion.
Kickers take over as rain sets in
With the rain now teeming down at Twickenham, the game became tighter, with much more kicking and handling mistakes which played in to the hands of New Zealand.
Their lead was cut to two points after another Pollard penalty, but within moments it was back out to five with Carter drilling another three-pointer after South Africa were penalised at the subsequent kick-off.
With Pollard off the field injured, replacement fly-half Pat Lambie showed nerves of steel to kick over a 30-metre penalty with his first shot at goal as the Boks looked for a way back into the game.
McCaw given shot at history
It wasn't to be for South Africa though, as the New Zealanders booked their place in back-to-back World Cup finals thanks to Carter's ten-point haul.
Meyer's side never really came close to scoring a try on the day despite their dominance at scrum-time and they will have to do with a place in the third-place playoff on Friday.
For the Kiwis, they can become the first side in history to defend their title next Saturday at Twickenham, with the already immortal Richie McCaw given his shot at history where he can become the first man ever to lift two Rugby World Cup's.