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While the Wallabies were being hammered by a record 51-20 at Eden Park on Saturday night, Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie must have had second thoughts about his selections.
The names readily spring to mind – Nic White, Matt Toomua, Scott Fardy and Sam Carter for starters, and why were Nick Phipps, Bernard Foley, Will Skelton and Scott Higginbotham kept on the bench until the international was well and truly lost?
Don’t be surprised if rejects like lock James Horwill and prop Benn Robinson resurface for the Boks clash in Perth on Saturday week.
Before Saturday night, the All Blacks’ 50-21 victory over the Wallabies at the SCG in 2003 was the worst defeat for the men in gold.
But the Wallabies committed a litany of fundamental errors that were of mind-boggling proportions. Tackling, passing, catching and retaining possession are as fundamental as rugby can get, eight-year-old kids are taught those same fundamentals.
You’d reckon by the time those kids were good enough to become Wallabies, those same fundamentals would be endemic.
But apart from the 65th minute when Phipps and Higginbotham gave Kurtley Beale the space to send Israel Folau over for a try, it was the first time in the game the Wallabies had done something right in attack.
The 65th minute?
Four minutes later Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper took the bit in his teeth and powered over from six metres out for their second try.
And it looked good when Folau intercepted in the 76th and ran 60 metres before being smothered in a Beauden Barrett tackle, but for the rest of the 77 minutes it was one-way traffic – the Wallabies were either depressing to watch, an embarrassment, or were being humiliated.
Take your pick of the three rugby fans, any and indeed all of them applied as the All Blacks gave a master class how to play rugby.
Don’t panic say the traditionalists, the purists and probably Ewen McKenzie – “we will learn from this” will be the catch cry.
We’ve heard it all before. Learn what? How to tackle, how to pass and catch a ball, how to retain possession?
One would have thought every one of the 23-strong Wallabies squad knew all four facets before they were selected. Now it’s reality time to meet the unbeaten Boks in Perth on Saturday week.