Talk of Cup curses started immediately after All Black coach Graham Henry told a news conference that Carter, his superstar flyhalf, would take no further part in the tournament because of a serious groin injury sustained during kicking practice late Saturday.
Carter has scored an international record 1250 test points and is considered the best No 10 in world rugby. The lack of an understudy for the 29-year-old pivot has long been seen as the Achilles heel of the All Blacks' World Cup campaign.
The worst fears of a New Zealand public desperate to end a World Cup drought have been realized.
Despite being the perennial No 1-ranked team, the All Blacks haven't won the World Cup since the inaugural edition in 1987, the last time New Zealand hosted the event.
"It's a tragic situation for a highly talented young sportsman," Henry said. "This was his scene really; a World Cup in New Zealand and it was going to be his big occasion."
The injury occurred only hours after Carter had been asked to captain New Zealand for the first time in his 84-test career in the absence of Richie McCaw, who was ruled out of Sunday's match against Canada with the recurrence of a foot injury. The New Zealanders should beat Canada but, with Carter gone, there's now much more pressure on McCaw to play through pain.
Henry also has to decide whether to go with Colin Slade at No 10, play Pirri Weepu out of his preferred scrumhalf position or to chance it with 22-year-old Aaron Cruden, who has gone on as a replacement in five of his six test maches to date, and was drafted into the 30-man squad.
The 100-test coach said the All Blacks needed to "show strength," both to support Carter and to move on in the tournament in his absence.
"The group is obviously very shattered with this news, but they are also a very resilient group of people focussed on doing this job right," Henry said. "We need to move on as well. We have been dealt the cards we have got and it is very important that we play them superbly."
The All Blacks aren't the only squad with injury concerns, although even Frans Steyn's tournament-ending shoulder injury isn't as disruptive for the defending champion Springboks as Carter's absence is for the All Blacks.
South Africa drafted in Zane Kirchner on Sunday to replace Steyn, and he'll join up with the Springboks in Wellington this week to prepare for the quarterfinals.
Australia extended its already long injury list when Drew Mitchell damaged his hamstring in the 68-22 win over Russia at Nelson on Saturday, while France is suffering from hurt pride after its 19-14 loss to Tonga at Wellington.
England rallied to edge old rival Scotland 16-12 with a Chris Ashton try three minutes from fulltime in Saturday's last match and will meet France in the quarterfinals.
Scotland's campaign hangs by a thread, relying on Georgia to upset Argentina on Sunday without conceding a bonus point. It's more than likely Scotland's run of reaching the knockout round at every World Cup has come to an end.
With five of the quarterfinal berths filled, three of Sunday's four matches will decide the rest: Argentina v Georgia, Wales v Fiji, and Italy v Ireland. Canada has been given little hope against New Zealand, but then Tonga wasn't given much hope against France, either.
France should have been wiped out on the scoreboard, but Tonga bombed numerous try-scoring chances and usually reliable kicker Kurt Morath made only five of nine shots at goal. Even so, Morath set up Tonga's try, his crosskick taken on the bounce by winger Suka Hufanga in the right corner.
France claimed the one bonus point it needed deep in injury time when Vincent Clerc scored in the same right corner.
"We played really bad rugby," France captain Thierry Dusautoir said. "If we play like this next week we're not going to have any chance of making the semifinals."
Scotland rose to the occasion of rugby's oldest rivals meeting for the first time on neutral ground with its most passionate effort of the tournament. It led on kicks 12-3 after 56 minutes but couldn't hold back England's flair for the dramatic before more than 58,000 in Eden Park.
The composed English rallied with a dropped goal and penalty from an off-key Jonny Wilkinson, who missed four shots at goal and two dropped goals. With a kickable penalty near the end, Lewis Moody opted for an attacking lineout. From there, the ball was spread wide and Ashton given an overlap to score in the right corner to break Scottish hearts.
Ashton's tournament-leading sixth try earned England its first win on Eden Park in 38 years.
"We can go away and say we've won, we've won ugly and we still know how to win a game of rugby when we don't play well, but we've got to turn that around and figure out how we're going to get better," midfielder Mike Tindall said.