LYON, France -- Australian rugby's ultimate nightmare came to life on Sunday night in Lyon - and there is still plenty to play out yet.
One of the most extraordinary days in the code's troubled recent history Down Under started and ended in inglorious fashion as the Wallabies exited Rugby World Cup 2023. Their record 40-6 loss to Wales has in all likelihood condemned Australia to a first ever pool stage departure, little more than 12 hours after the bombshell report that coach Eddie Jones had interviewed for the role to coach Japan had rattled the sport to its core.
The Wallabies played liked a team on edge throughout at Groupama Stadium. They conceded a try after only three minutes when Wales back-rower Jac Morgan cut through Ben Donaldson's defensive channel and found scrum-half Gareth Davies for the score next to the sticks. And Australia never really recovered thereafter.
Just a week after they suffered a first loss to Fiji in 69 years, the Wallabies have -- barring a complete implosion from Fiji -- departed World Cup calculations at the pool stage for the very first time. The worst part is they must now suffer the embarrassment of hanging around for a meaningless match against Portugal in seven days' time, while the speculation about Jones' future hits even greater heights, despite the coach doing his best to shut it down post-match.
"I don't know what you are talking about, mate. I am committed to coaching Australia," Jones said when asked about the Sydney Morning Herald article that was the talk of Lyon throughout the build-up on Sunday.
Asked separately if he had lined up a second interview with the Japanese Rugby Union, with an alleged first interview having already been conducted via Zoom, Jones doubled down on his defence: "I said I don't know what you're talking about, mate... I'm committed to coach Australia. I'm committed to coach Australia."
- RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023: Squads | Schedule | Standings | Podcast | Injuries
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh had only a few hours before kick-off fronted the media in Lyon to answer questions about Jones' alleged meeting with Japanese officials. He said that he could only take Jones "at his word" and that the 63-year-old had denied the report.
There is speculation that Jones may well have been talking to Japan to ensure he still had gainful employment if the Wallabies did crumble in France.
At Wallaby House by the River Rhone, Waugh said Rugby Australia was committed to Jones for the future. After what the Wallabies dished up a few hours later, the RA boss may well be reconsidering those sentiments. And one can only fathom the anger at RA if the governing body finds Jones has lied. It would likely be a patch on what the Australian rugby public is feeling.
As some of the play in Lyon was comical, the kind of which embodied a team whose confidence had been completely shot. If it wasn't a farcical first-half lineout after they had spurned three points, where the front of the set-piece collapsed on itself, then it was Donaldson's restart that went out on the full and very nearly led to a second Welsh try in the first half that would have all but secured the result at the break.
But Josh Adams' near-miss mattered little, as Wales held their shape and executed their game plan even after the early loss of veteran fly-half Dan Biggar. Where the Wallabies asked few questions of Wales' defence, Wales turned the ball inside and out, mixed up their tactical kicking game, and generally played with more purpose.
Wales were desperate for the result, while the Wallabies had the look of a side that didn't even want to be there.
The closest Australia came to scoring a try was when Angus Bell got to within metres of the line after a Richie Arnold offload early in the match. After that, they fumbled and bumbled their way out of the tournament, with Wales growing in confidence after every turnover or scrum penalty; of which there were several after Australia had dominated the set-piece earlier in the match.
The Wallabies looked devoid of leadership. And Jones' decision to stick with Porecki as captain, despite the return of Tate McDermott, looked ridiculous from the opening whistle when the hooker was penalised after only seconds.
McDermott was the most threatening of any Wallabies player as he probed around the rucks and threw a slick cut-out ball to back-rower Rob Leota for a first-half break, but the scrum-half was playing a near lone hand and eventually he too was drawn into error.
But he was not alone, as it felt like nearly every Australian player produced some daft decision or poor piece of skill execution throughout the 80 minutes.
All the while Anscombe kept Wales' scoreboard ticking over with penalty after penalty, the replacement fly-half also laying on his side's second-half try with a neat chip kick in behind the Wallabies that Nick Tompkins won the race to.
At 26-6 after that score, the game was gone, even though there was still 32 minutes left on the clock. But the Wallabies' body language was telling; heads were down across the paddock, while it was left to youngster Nick Frost to try and rally some sort of response.
But it never came. In fact it only deteriorated further.
And that has been the story of Jones' return this year. Sunday night's record defeat was the coach's seventh since he was brought back and anointed as the saviour of Australian rugby, and Dave Rennie cast to the curb just nine months out from a World Cup. Jones has only a patchy win over Georgia to show for his "start of the cycle" rebuild, one it is alleged he is attempting to exit stage left.
One can only imagine what Rennie was thinking during the complete and utter debacle that engulfed the Wallabies on Sunday night. He is not the sort of man to snigger and take joy from Australia's World Cup exit, such is his quiet respectful manner, so too his strong relationship with multiple Wallabies players, but there must have at least been a wry smile and a giggle at the expense of his former employers.
And not that they will have wanted to see so many of their long-time teammates suffer such indignity, but former skipper Michael Hooper and veteran pivot Quade Cooper must have also taken the briefest moment of joy in Australia's horror; Bernard Foley, meanwhile, simply posted to social media platform X "it didn't have to be like this."
The late introduction of youngster Carter Gordon, who was shifted to the bench by Jones for this clash, made you wonder just how different this tournament might have been for Australia if they had taken at least one experienced playmaker.
And the heads certainly wouldn't have dropped like they did if Hooper had been on the field.
Gordon's late kick touch-in-goal, when he was shooting for the corner, from a rare Wallabies penalty, illustrated Australia's predicament perfectly. He is a player of talent no doubt, but to send him into the heat of World Cup battle without even an experienced five-eighth sounding board in the wider squad was ridiculous.
"I don't think you can ever use experience as an excuse, some teams can become experienced really quickly," Jones said when asked about his decision to take a youth policy -- Australia have the youngest average squad age of any of the 20 competing nations -- to France
"When you have a team like we have got at the moment, you just need a period of play or a period of the game to go well and the team can change very quickly. At the moment we have got the ability to do that so phases of play are good but the players, because they are young, they tend not to stick at it. It's not because they don't care, their effort just drops off a little bit. I am not sure you can use experience as an excuse but it's definitely part of our issue."
Jones will have to be held accountable for those selection calls, so too training regimes which saw both skipper Will Skelton and Taniela Tupou injured ahead of Australia's loss to Fiji. The Wallabies' two key ball carriers should never have been flogged like they were in the heat of Saint-Etienne, given they had come off a marathon French season and a serious Achilles injury respectively.
While Jones must be held accountable, so too should those at Rugby Australia, with chairman Hamish McLennan at the top of the list. McLennan has been singing from the Jones song sheet all year, but any attempt to do so now, given the result in Lyon and its remarkable build-up, would be a disgrace.
Australian rugby has flirted with rock bottom many times over the past four years, and even back beyond that, but a 40-6 hammering by Wales is officially it. The code has never been in a pit as deep as this.
A looming first-ever Rugby World Cup pool stage exit. A record World Cup defeat. A record defeat by Wales. And a coach who is alleged to be seeking an exit just nine months into a five-year deal, despite his denials.
What a complete and utter debacle.