The Wallabies have been left "deflated" but believe they haven't hit rock bottom after they failed to kick on from a strong opening 40 minutes, bombing a nine-point halftime lead to concede 30 straight points in a 42-26 capitulation in Brisbane.
In front of a second straight sold-out crowd in two weeks, the Wallabies have let a win slip through their grasp once more, in yet another frustrating outing as they simply had no answer to France's world-class attack.
Succumbing to their sixth straight loss, their ninth in 10 Tests, they are now having their worst run of losses since 1969. A seventh would be diabolical. But as the Wallabies stare down the barrel of more unwanted history, reserve prop Brandon Paenga-Amosa doesn't agree that the side has sunk to its lowest.
"No, I don't think we're rock bottom," Paenga-Amosa told media after the side's capitulation.
"I think we're tracking, obviously we'd like to be tracking better, but like you can see we're stringing together some really good passages of rugby, it's just a matter of being consistent with that, and that's what it's about in the end.
"One win would definitely help us. I think we're desperate. We are desperate as a team, good desperate though. We're working hard for each other. We're grinding. We want that win and once we get it it'll just be a snowball effect."
Forced to play out a 75-minute shift after Josh Nasser was ruled out through a head knock in the opening minutes, Paenga-Amosa was one of the biggest players on the field for the Wallabies, including scoring the side's opening try of the night through enterprising play with Ryan Lonergan at the front of the lineout before rumbling it over three phases later.
But while the 30-year-old was one of the few standout performers -- alongside flanker Fraser McReight who scored two within 10 minutes to build Australia's lead into the break -- there were simply too many limp performances from the rest of the squad that led to a second half drubbing.
After a standout performance in his fourth Test last week, Josh Canham stole one lineout but was otherwise poor on Saturday night missing five tackles, the most of any player on the pitch ahead of Ryan Lonergan on four, and conceded multiple penalties in his 52-minute appearance, while Len Ikitau was rarely sighted through the piece and a superb first half from Tom Wright -- including two sublime 50/22 kicks -- was overridden by a poor second half that included a yellow card and little impact once he returned to the field.
Once again, a positive start was squandered as the group failed to piece together a full 80-minute performance.
"Going into the half was quite positive. From what I remember we're up by a couple of points and it was a good vibe.
"Obviously came into the second half and as we always say it's a game of two halves and we've got to be better there as a team to be able to fire and carry that momentum from the first half into the second."
After enjoying much of the momentum in the first half, particularly during a 10-minute period that saw France without lock Emmanuel Meafou through a yellow card, momentum quickly shifted early in the second following a Max Jorgensen dangerous tackle midfield in the 46th minute. France scrumhalf Maxime Lucu used the opportunity to bank the three points and the Wallabies struggled to get themselves into the game from then on.
"Yeah, you could feel it. You could feel the momentum shifting. Obviously, we didn't do a good enough job to kind of swing the tables back on, to shift it back to us.
"We know that the French are rapid and a world-class outfit, and we didn't do a good enough job to stop them and to turn it into our favour."
Momentum shifts are a part of the game. Rarely does any one side enjoy territory, possession and the rub of the green through 80 minutes, particularly in Test rugby, but it's an area of the game the Wallabies have struggled to combat. Finding the ability to arrest momentum and swing the game back in their direction is front of mind.
"I think it all comes back to process and just sticking to the process," Paenga-Amosa said. "We speak a lot about momentum shifts, but process stays consistent, so I think we missed the mark a couple of times on that. Just sticking to our process and being accurate.
"Obviously, as a team, we work hard to put the best performance and just circling back to what I said earlier, it's a game of two halves and it comes back to just being accurate for 80 minutes.
"We look world class in patches of the game, there's no denying that, but it's just bringing it together and being consistent with that for the whole game."
Turning passages of incredible rugby into a full performance has alluded the Wallabies under Schmidt, and before him Dave Rennie and Eddie Jones, and it's left the group frustrated. According to Paenga-Amosa the buy-in from the group is there, it's now time for the players to put in competent individual performances.
"Definitely, definitely [frustrating]. Like when we're on, we're on. It's just a matter of being on and staying on, you know?
"We've got a great Wallabies team. I back everybody in our squad. As I said, we just need to be a lot better, a lot more accurate. It comes back to that. It comes back to accuracy. In the end, you can't rely on other teams, we've got to be able to rely on ourselves to bring wins, stick to the process.
"We always speak about and be accurate with our roles and I back everybody in our team to do that.
"I'd say, as a squad, we've all bought in. That's what it comes down to, buy-in, and everybody's bought in to give the best performances that we can individually with our own individual roles. And it comes back to that.
"It comes back to encouraging one another to nail our own individual roles so then we can win our own little battles against the opposition, so then it can come to a victory in the end."
Preparing for the final week of the Nations Championship July Tests, the Wallabies have been given extra motivation to get the job done with Joe Schmidt officially ending his tenure with the group. Currently sitting on a 36.66% winning rate, only a win next week will seem him avoid the title as the statistically worst Wallabies coach in the professional era.
"Yeah, we definitely want to send Joe off. Obviously, it's his last match next week. We want to send him off with a dub.
"He's a good coach and the boys get around him and we're looking to definitely give something, give a performance that he'd be proud of, not just him but also us as well."