Australia earned admiration for the way they turned this into such a compelling contest, even briefly threatening a runaway victory when James Slipper, Jake Gordon and Tom Wright combined for a hat-trick of first-half tries in eight minutes. It was a stirring riposte after the derision they had drawn for their anonymous display in Brisbane, with all in green-and-gold at the MCG marvelling at the ruthlessness with which they exploited their man advantage when Tommy Freeman was sent to the sin bin for his indiscipline.

In that exhilarating interlude, you saw the heights of which the Wallabies were capable, whether in their clever kicking game or in the magical, defence-splitting run that Joseph Suaalii produced to send Wright clean through. It was a night, all told, when the sport in Australia rediscovered its soul. The sadness for these players was that even at their most inspired, they still could not sustain the jeopardy until Sydney. Harry Wilson was a study in desolation at the final whistle, explaining: “We were written off, but we came out here and put our bodies on the line. To lose it at the very end, it hurts.” The captain reflected that he was “not in the right emotional space” even to discuss the Tizzano incident.

Not that this stopped Joe Schmidt from trying, with the Australia head coach suggesting that Morgan had flown into the ruck with such force that he collected Tizzano high. “It was described as arriving at the same time, and we can all see that that’s not the case,” he said. “We can all see clear contact with the back of the neck, which might be a different decision on another night. We led for 79 minutes and I couldn’t quite believe that we didn’t get a decision at the end to lead for 80. That’s the wicked backlash that sport provides.”