Not even Nostradamus could have seen this Wallabies squad coming.
Veteran coach Eddie Jones on Thursday night truly outdid himself, naming a 33-man squad to contest the Rugby World Cup in France that can scarcely be believed. While Jones is a man with a history of the wild and whacky, the touring party he settled on to contest the game's global showpiece next month has seen him ascend to an even greater shock threshold altogether.
While the omissions of Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper were understandable, with Jones preferring youth with an eye on 2027, the selections of an 18-year-old Max Jorgensen and Will Skelton as a fifth skipper in a season that is only four Tests old, are almost beyond comprehension.
Read on as we break down some of the key takeaways from an extraordinary day in Australian rugby history.
Injuries too risky for Jones, well, some anyway
The decision to leave Len Ikitau and Michael Hooper out of this squad will likely be troubling for some, or at least Jones' explanation as to why they were overlooked when others like Samu Kerevi [broken hand] and Taniela Tupou [ribs] were included.
Certainly the emergence of Tom Hooper and Fraser McReight as No. 7 options played a huge role in Hooper's omission, but for Ikitau -- who has been among the Wallabies' best over the past few years -- the decision is harder to fathom.
The Brumbies centre would have likely been available for either the Wallabies' first or second pool games as he continues his recover from a broken scapula; still, that wasn't enough for Jones to roll the dice, the coach instead happy with his centre options at outside centre in Jordan Petaia and Izaia Perese.
"He was close, and we had to draw a line as to who we take that was borderline fitness and who we decided not to take, and again it just comes down to judgement and want we think we can carry and what we can't take," Jones explained.
"And so we decided that we couldn't take Lenny, he hasn't had a lot of rugby obviously for the last six or seven weeks, but there is no reason once you get fit he couldn't feature in the World Cup because we've just seen in the Rugby Championship, I think from the original squad we lost seven of those players.
"So the World Cup which is obviously more games, there is reason to think the players that are out of the squad who are not currently at their best may feature later in the tournament."
Jones is right to suggest that those players left out of the squad could still figure in the World Cup at some point, but injury changes are not as straightforward as simply plonking somebody on a plane. Submissions have to be made to World Rugby, who then either approve or deny the request.
Australia A will be playing some matches in the build-up to the World Cup, with those players outside of the squad having the opportunity to further press their claims and be on standby should the Wallabies suffer further injuries, which is inevitable.
But will Michael Hooper, after 125 Tests and almost half of those a captain, really want to leave his family for nearly a month to be involved with that team? That is a question he will have to ponder over the next little while, but one he may find the answer to is Test rugby retirement. And no one would begrudge him of that.
Skelton decision makes sense, even if Eddie's explanation has holes in it
The decision to hand Will Skelton the captaincy was one very few people will have seen coming. But it also makes a lot of sense when you consider that he is arguably the only "winner" among the group.
The old saying that "winning is a habit" is right on the money with Skelton, who boasts four European Champions Cup titles and an English Premiership on his resume, and he has become one of the dominant forwards in northern hemisphere club rugby.
"We went for the biggest bloke in the team, so it was quite an easy selection.," Jones quipped on Skelton's selection. "No, we want to change the team, my job is to come here and change the team, and part of that was changing the leadership and the way the team's led.
"And Will's a good man, a good team man, he's played in a lot of winning teams in Europe and he brings that almost common touch to the team to bring that together and he's going to be well supported by Tate as vice-captain, and we've got senior guys like Slips and Nic White and Andrew Kellaway to support him, Samu Kerevi [as well]."
The one big question with Jones' management of his captains this season is why then he didn't go for Skelton, or Allan Alaalatoa [now injured] or even Tate McDermott, from the outset? If he was brought in to change the team, then returning to James Slipper and Michael Hooper as his original captains didn't really make any sense at all, particularly when it was evident to most that neither player was guaranteed a run-on start in the first place?
As fine a leader as Skelton may be, surely he would have benefitted from the opportunity to captain the Wallabies through the Rugby Championship, to at least get a feel for the role he admits is largely foreign to him?
"Experience, I think I captained once, and that was for the Wallaby XV, I think we had three days to prepare in 2016 against the French Barbarians, so I lack a lot of it," Skelton said.
"But like I said before, I'm excited by this challenge, I'm excited to see what this group can do; very young, very enthusiastic, ambitious, and we're looking to make some headlines out in France."
Skelton, a softly-spoken giant who will lead by example, is an inspired choice because he has that winning record. But does he have the referee and player management skills required for the intensity of Test matches? It is doubtful, and so McDermott's role as vice-captain will be particularly important.
As for Eddie's explanation of his captaincy thinking over the past few months, well it might not hold up under cross-examination in the court of law.
Youth trumps experience on the road to 2027
Very few people will give the Wallabies any chance of bringing home a third Webb Ellis Trophy when the World Cup gets underway next month, with good reason. They have never consistently shown they are at the same level of France, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand.
But there is no doubt Australia has a group of promising young players coming through, who will form the crux of their squad for the tournament when it is played on home soil in 2027.
Think Angus Bell, Fraser McReight, Tom Hooper, Tate McDermott, Nick Frost, Rob Valetini and Max Jorgensen.
This time last year, Jorgensen was weighing up offers from rugby league and well as rugby, but opted to commit himself to the 15-player game. If he gets on the field at any stage during the World Cup he will become the youngest ever Australian player to make his Test debut at the game's global showpiece, following in the footsteps of Jordan Petaia who took his international bow in Japan four years ago as a 19-year-old rookie.
"One of the reasons is that he's such a versatile player, he can play fullback or wing equally as well, but he is a player of the future for Australian rugby and we want to give him the opportunity at this World Cup," Jones said of Jorgensen.
"He'll contribute, mate, every time he gets on the field he'll play well for us, but then he'll take that experience onto the next World Cup."
The expectation on Jones is that the Wallabies reach a semifinal -- Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh confirmed that - and anything less would largely be deemed a failure. And coming from the weaker side of the draw, it is entirely possible that this Wallabies group can achieve that.
But at the same time, there have been enough wobbles in recent times to suggest that bowing out in the group stage is also not beyond the realms of possibility, particularly given Fiji's improvement and the fact that Warren Gatland knows how to get Wales winning.
Still, there may well prove to be a moment when Australia longs for the calming presence of Quade Cooper.
"Really difficult decisions but as we said in the press release, we've really gone down the line, we think the young players are the players who are going to take Australian rugby forward," Jones explained of his decision to overlook Cooper and Michael Hooper.
"This squad's good enough to win this World Cup and possibly go on and win the next World Cup, that's the advantage of picking the young guys. They all deserve their opportunity, it's not as if we're handing them the jersey on a platter, but they'll bring energy and a lot of ambition and enthusiasm for the team."
Goal-kicking looks light, as does cover at No. 10
Come one down, Carter Gordon. You are now clearly the Wallabies man for France.
Jones' decision to overlook a 35-year-old Quade Cooper, who is still finding his best form on the comeback from an Achilles injury, is understandable. But to have only Ben Donaldson in his 33-man squad otherwise offering cover, seems foolhardy at best.
And goal-kicking is where the biggest concern lies. If the Wallabies do reach the knock-out phase, where matches become increasingly defensive and nervy affairs, then there will be genuine concern over Gordon's ability to split the sticks from the kicking tee.
His vital miss in Dunedin last week, when he struck the left upright from just wide of the posts, proved telling. And when you compare that with Cooper's long-range penalty that tied the scores at 20-all in Dunedin, or think back to 2015 when Bernard Foley enjoyed a perfect night from the tee against England and then later nailed a pressure penalty to defeat Scotland in a dramatic quarterfinal, Wallabies fans may well be find themselves longing for either player later in the tournament.
And as for Donaldson, well there might not be a more fortunate rugby player in the country. Certainly Jones' unwavering faith will have been of huge confidence to the Force-bound youngster, but there is a genuine question over his ability to handle the big moments, as evidenced by his post-siren conversion miss against Italy in Florence or his poor clearing kick late in the Super Rugby thriller with the Brumbies in Round 6.
Is Donaldson really the man the Wallabies want coming off the bench to ice an unlikely victory in the dying stages of a knockout game in France?
It's all well and good to back youth and look to the future, but the value of big-game experience can't be understated and there will be only one man to blame if the Wallabies bow out in circumstances that resembled last week's blown opportunity across the ditch.