Dejection for Australia players and staff after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Wales and Australia. Photo: Craig Mercer/MB Media
Analysis - At about the hour mark of the Wallabies' disastrous humiliation against Wales, there was a moment that summed up the entire Australian rugby experience in all its horror.
Tate McDermott, one of six men to have led the side this year, decided to box kick on his 22.
It was a half-hearted effort that went straight up in the air, but provoked only a sad resignation from his team mates that yet another thing had gone wrong. They froze, the ball hit one of them and a penalty was awarded to Wales, with Gareth Anscombe happy to knock over another three points on the way to a record 40-6 victory.
For Anscombe, the former Blues and Chiefs first five, it was yet another easy shot at goal. Forty points is a lot when you've only scored two tries, but the fact Wales simply had to hang around in the Wallaby half for a while and wait for their opponents to concede another penalty underlined just how rudderless the Australians are.
For anyone who has only really paid attention to test rugby in the last decade or so, it might not be that much of a shock, and for those who are old enough to remember the Wallabies dominating world rugby for periods in the 90s and early 00s, it just feels sad.
But for New Zealand rugby fans, it's more ominous.
We are tied to the fortunes of Australian rugby, no matter how much we don't want to admit it. The game's annual showpiece is the Bledisloe Cup, which is a guaranteed sell-out at Eden Park, despite the fact the Wallabies haven't won it in two decades. How long's that going to be the case if they continue this current slide, though?
Then there's the more immediate issue of Super Rugby.
Unlike the Bledisloe, trans-Tasman fixtures do not draw crowds at all in New Zealand, unless they are being played in small market venues like Palmerston North or Invercargill.
That's not a very sustainable business model for something that's presenting itself as the best domestic competition in the world, but really, who can blame people for not wanting to spend money on watching any of the Australian teams bar the Brumbies right now?
This is just the start of what will be a long period of culpability and recrimination for the World Cup disaster.
Word has already come out that Eddie Jones had been in talks with the Japanese RFU about a return to coaching their national side, despite still having five years to run on his Wallabies contract.
It is definitely worth mentioning how the victorious Welsh have gone in the complete opposite direction, though.
Warren Gatland was publicly wondering if he'd made the right call in returning to the job not that long ago. While a lot of the Wallaby victory was handed to them on a plate, Gatland's side played smart, efficient rugby. It's especially impressive after they did the same thing to Fiji in their opening game.
The Welsh will be progressing to the quarter-finals for a likely date with Argentina. As it stands, there is a reasonable chance that none of The Rugby Championship sides will make the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup, and the Wallabies have played their part in that scenario by getting bounced in pool play for the first time ever.
While it might make the All Blacks' ongoing woes look insignificant by comparison, the wider picture is a bleak one for both nations.
