The Wallabies and All Blacks play each other four more times before they meet in what will be the second pool match for both teams at next year's Rugby World Cup. Play like they did in Auckland at the weekend, and Australia will have likely ensured they avoid the Springboks in the quarterfinals.
Coincidentally, as the Wallabies woke to lick their wounds from another crushing defeat at Eden Park, the calendar had rolled to Oct. 9, the very same day they will meet in Sydney next year.
The jury is probably still out on whether a win in that historic pool clash -- the first between the two multi-World Cup winners before the knockout rounds -- is worth its likely result, a quarterfinal with the two-time defending champions.
The Wallabies of course won't have to play at Eden Park, where Australia's winless run will extend into a 41st year, at least, and to which they seemingly remain as far from ending as they ever have. That drought might yet hit a half-century, and even had rugby league luminary Phil Gould pondering the problem on Saturday night as "Gus" took in a rare spot of the 15-player game.
But it is Australia's response that becomes vital this week. For it had been the near perfect start to Les Kiss' coaching reign, only for the sternest of reality checks to be issued through an unwavering aerial raid that brought the All Blacks' boundless success -- and a breakdown attack that underscored a team desperate to atone for their 3-1 series loss to South Africa.
"You've got to take your hat off to them, they won the aerial battles and profited off those things very well as well. So it just hard to get a footing in that second half... there was two opportunities and we robbed ourselves of those opportunities," Kiss reflected post-match.
One of those opportunities came in the 45th minute after a superb break from Max Jorgensen and an equally brilliant kick from Tom Wright, which forced Beauden Barrett to rush the ball into touch five metres from his own line.
The Wallabies had the perfect opportunity to set a driving maul from close range from the ensuing lineout and then hammer away at the All Blacks' line, a position where Australia have been incredibly effective so far this year.
But they didn't even get the chance to rumble the maul, nor the near undefendable pick-and-go, after referee Andrew Brace penalised the Wallabies for maul obstruction.
Technical? Yes. Correct? Probably.
When New Zealand got back-to-back penalties after a perfectly placed high ball from Cam Roigard and enjoyed a five-metre lineout of their own a couple of minutes later, they didn't fumble their opportunity. Roigard instead ensured they earned seven points -- and any hope of an unlikely Wallabies win was shot.
That four-and-a-half minute sequence could not have been a better representation of the entire match.
The fact that New Zealand ran in a further four tries thereafter, and Australia just one, underscored the momentum shift the Wallabies' botched lineout created and left Kiss, his side, and the broader Australian rugby community in no doubt as to how much work there is still left to do.
But their response in Sydney will be telling.
While they will meet on three further occasions next year, too, the timing of Saturday's Test and the fact that it will be played at the same venue as their pool clash next year, make it a dress rehearsal, of sorts, for what is to come.
Will a loss next year be terminal for their World Cup hopes? Not at all, particularly given the Springboks have won the last two World Cups after dropping a pool game earlier in the tournament.
But should Australia suffer a defeat like the one they did at Eden Park on Saturday, then suddenly a potential Round of 16 game against Japan may look a tad trickier, and a likely quarterfinal with England downright daunting.
Even with a growing injury ward that has scrubbed Len Ikitau from Saturday's second Bledisloe and ruined a potential Test return for Jordan Petaia, Kiss, Harry Wilson and co. must drive an immediate response. The momentum Australia built against Japan, Argentina and South Africa has been stifled, but not yet squandered.
"No, I don't think so," Kiss said when asked if the belief built in recent times, which skipper Harry Wilson had referenced on match eve last Friday, would be lost with Saturday's defeat.
"You get a knock-back, you find out more about yourself, and that's what we'll do. We'll work hard... belief is created and sustained not just by wins and losses, they're created by other things.
"And these boys have a strong culture, strong belief in themselves and a confidence about what they can do. But the lessons are there; if you can't get your strengths going and their strengths grow, it makes it a difficult game.
"So we'll go back and work on what we have to and try and turn the dial in the right areas that can go to Sydney and return fire."
After a far better performance in Auckland last year where they very nearly stole victory, the Wallabies ran out a week later in Perth and barely fired a shot against the All Blacks. They lost four of the five Tests that followed.
With four further games to come in 2026, they can ill-afford a repeat of that Optus Stadium effort this Saturday. There is still much to gain in 2027, so too a platform to be laid, before we return to Accor Stadium on Oct. 9 next year.