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When yet another Will Genia box kick went pear-shaped, and Quade Cooper missed a very kickable penalty, the Italians led 10-zip in Turin last night in as many minutes.
“Bloody hell, this could be worse than the Samoa-Scotland humiliations,” I said out loud.
But who can ever gauge what this Wallaby team can do? If they were thoroughbreds, they would be up before the stewards every race.
I didn’t have to wait long as skipper Ben Mowen dotted down for his first Test try in the 13th minute, Tevita Kuridrani scored next, then Nick Cummins the first of his two five-pointers, and the Wallabies led 19-10 at oranges.
At the final hooter it was Wallabies 50-20, seven tries to three, Cummins man-of-the-match.
Cummins played very very well, but Cooper and Israel Folau were even better.
Cooper was at his razzle-dazzle best, setting up three of the five tries scored while he was on the park for an hour, Folau set up two others and scored one himself.
Great to see Cooper calling the shots, and back to his confident best. But as I predicted last week, there’s even more to come from Folau, who has consistently become the Wallaby capable of winning games that count.
Winning last night was imperative, but don’t take the cricket score as the Wallabies being back in business.
They beat a non-tackling ordinary international side, but it was only a warm-up for nest weekend’s clash with Ireland at Dublin.
The difference? Ireland can play.
The other plusses from last night – Rob Simmons was a standout in his new role at six, Michael Hooper was more value playing his selected seven role, than his self-appointed 7-12 stints. Genia was more consistent and as a result the backs scored six of the seven tries, and Mowen showed more leadership.
This was a vastly different Wallaby side on performance than the one that tanked it at Twickenham last weekend, even though name-wise it was the same minus the concussed Scott Fardy.
Enough said on Turin because there are three other worries in the Wallaby camp.
Firstly, David Pocock’s future which is vital to the futuire of the men in gold.
My mail is his knees are worse than Michael Clarke’s dicky back, and that’s serious. In fact so serious it may well be career-ending and that would be a tragedy.
Pocock is the only current Wallaby who can rate with the greats of yesteryear that I named yesterday.
My second worry is my long-standing colleague Spiro Zavos, who like me stood firm by Robbie Deans throughout his tenure, has been making anti-Ewen McKenzie noises explaining the knives are out.
Spiro is a high-quality rugby writer, and for him to take that stance, could mean where there’s smoke there’s fire.
And thirdly, Mowen and former Wallaby coach John Connolly, talking up the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup chances in 2015.
Enough to make you throw up.
The Rugby World Cup is some 20-plus Tests away. The only Test the Wallabies should be concentrating on is the very next one, in this case Ireland.
When that’s done and dusted, the only Test to be mentioned – Scotland at Murrayfield – and so on.
At least the plane flight today from Turin to Dublin will be a lot more pleasant than the flight from Heathrow last weekend.
But just remember what happened in Turin, the way the Wallabies can play.
Or it begs the question, why are we supporting a side that can’t click every week?
Rugby’s not hard, it’s only the players who make it so.