SYDNEY -- There was very little that was pretty about the Wallabies' performance against Wales, but Australian rugby can take a collective sigh of relief as the Joe Schmidt era at least got off to a winning start on Saturday night in Sydney.
After a dour opening hour, a piece of Tom Wright brilliance at last broke the game open for Australia, the fullback producing one of his trademark counterattacks to provide the near 36,000-strong crowd one genuinely thrilling moment in an otherwise stop-start contest that was dominated by the whistle of referee Pierre Brousset.
But that will matter little to this new Wallabies playing group, who will be happy just to have secured the 25-16 win and finally closed the ugly chapter that was last year's Rugby World Cup catastrophe.
As for Schmidt, he spoke post-match of his relief at the victory, but also hailed the "roll-your-sleeves" up mentality of his new playing group.
"A win is really important and it always is, because that's what you get judged on externally," Schmidt said. "Internally, just some of the moments that we did really well to earn the win, that's what will be the focus for us this week building into Melbourne.
"We have a few things that we've been working on that are maybe a little bit different to how teams have played in Super Rugby, so the adjustment time for that for it to become second nature is inevitably going to take time. Hopefully, it can take 'til Tuesday and we can be really good at it - I'm not sure. It will develop over these next two weeks, hopefully, and we know how tough the Rugby Championship is, so we'll leave that at the moment because we'll just focus on what's in front of us."
While Taniela Tupou and Filipo Daugunu, who slid four metres over the line in greasy conditions in Sydney, also picked up five-pointers, it was Wright who brought the home crowd to its feet with a scintillating 60-metre run.
From an aimless Welsh kick, replacement fly-half and debutant Tom Lynagh immediately shifted the ball to his right and into the hands of the daring fullback. From there, Wright burned Nick Tompkins on the outside and galloped into acres of open country before he put on a bit of final footwork for some style points and the game's defining score. Lynagh's conversion from 10 metres inside the right touchline also earned special praise from Schmidt.
Earlier, the first half had delivered few passages of opening attacking play, with a break by Andrew Kellaway inside the first quarter the only real time Australia worked their way in behind the visitors' defence.
They did however enjoy set-piece and territorial dominance, and asked Wales to make three times more tackles, but Australia were either repelled by a dogged defensive line, forced to kick the ball or were let down by their handling, Noah Lolesio a guilty party at one particularly inopportune moment, only a minute or so after he had spurned a very kickable penalty.
The fly-half kicked well out of hand at times, but failed to command the match in a way that will have convinced Joe Schmidt that he is his long-term option at No. 10. Lolesio also overshot a cross-kick for a flying Kellaway when the better option would have been to put it through the hands, though Schmidt backed his playmaker to "see the space" and execute accordingly, so the Wallabies coach wasn't overly perturbed by that play.
Having struggled for fitness and form throughout Super Rugby Pacific, Tupou gave everyone a timely reminder of his scrum prowess, careering through his opposite for one early penalty before the Wallabies earned a second at the set-piece later in the first stanza. The recruitment of famed New Zealand scrum coach Mike Cron might already be paying off.
The Australian lineout also earned some pay on the defensive side of the ball, picking off two early Welsh throws at the front.
Wales, meanwhile, had only fleeting opportunities when they were able to put Australia under pressure. Their maul was damaging, bringing about their only five-pointer of the match -- a penalty-try at that -- that also saw Fraser McReight sent to the sin-bin.
The visitors had a second lineout drive overturned, correctly, by the TMO in the 58th minute, with a clear obstruction obvious on replay. Had that five-pointer stood, Wales would have been level, or could have even taken the lead, with the conversion, but they would not worry Australia's line with any great pressure again.
Having crossed the Tasman to take on the challenge of coaching the Wallabies, Schmidt has passed his first examination and has plenty to build on in the second Test against Wales in Melbourne next week, followed by the one-off clash with Georgia back in Sydney the week after.
The Kiwi will have been encouraged by the efforts of lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and his debutant second-row partner Jeremy Williams, while Rob Valetini delivered his usual workload on both sides of the ball, the No. 8 dishing out plenty of defensive punishment inside the closing quarter in particular.
Scrum-half Jake Gordon meanwhile cleared the Wallabies' 22 with composure, enjoyed the odd snipe and also produced a desperate ankle tap on Adam Wainwright -- who was Wales' biggest contributor and could have easily won man-of-the-match honours in a losing team -- just when it looked like the visitors had done enough to get in behind the Australian defence and were set for a run to the line.
Gordon was otherwise a worthy winner of the game's man-of-the-match award.
Wallabies skipper Liam Wright was busy in defence and at the defensive lineout and led the side competently, before he was replaced by Charlie Cale, the captaincy then switching to Allan Alaalatoa in what may be an indication of things to come.
At the end of a long season, Wales coach Warren Gatland must now get his team up for their final assignment of the summer. They will need to find a little more in attack, and shore up their set-piece, but there was enough in Saturday night's performance to suggest that they are capable of turning the tables next week at AAMI Park. The coach also shook off suggestions it would be tough to ask his side for one more effort in what has been a winless 2024.
"I don't think we have to raise them [up]," Gatland said. "The way the boys have trained this week and the buzz that has been there in the group has been outstanding.
"We know that we're going through a process of playing at the highest level, which is about learning to handle some pressure; it's just staying in the arm wrestle, being more accurate. And that just takes a little bit of time in terms of on the field stuff, so I've been through this with teams in the past and once you get across the line players and the team learn that understanding and then start turning those games that are close into W's. And that's what we've got to through on at the moment."
Gatland, too, bemoaned a number of 50/50 calls he felt did not go Wales' way, referencing one tough kick-out-on-the-full decision just after a Wallabies knock-on when the visitors deserved more advantage. The Kiwi also couldn't see the obstruction that saw Wales' second driving maul try overturned by the TMO.
While the visitors will fancy their chances of squaring the ledger next week, one would expect that Australia will be better, too. The Wallabies had barely a week's worth of training in two separate camps before this Test and they will benefit from a couple more days together in Melbourne ahead of the AAMI Park clash.
Australia had moments when they were completely disjointed and players did not know quite where they needed to be, but there were also sequences of the Schmidt blueprint -- Kellaway's first-half break one example -- and how he will look to lift this side up from its lowly 9th Test ranking. Schmidt will however demand better discipline, particularly from his senior players who he needs to lead this Wallabies revolution.
For the time being, though, this Wallabies team deserves the chance to crack a smile, a beer, and to toast the start of the new era -- those who were left emotionally damaged by World Cup horror show in particular.
As assistant coach Laurie Fisher said on social media platform X not long after fulltime, there will be plenty more bumps to come on this rebuild, particularly during the Rugby Championship, and therefore much more work to be done before that tournament arrives, so the Australians must take the opportunity to pause and enjoy the victory, knowing that the demons of 2023 can at last be cast aside.
That's certainly how the broader Australian rugby community will be feeling tonight, even if they were shifting in their seats for a large portion of Saturday night's Test season opener.