There was a certain cross-code irony at Accor Stadium on Friday night in Sydney, as Sydney Roosters winger Mark Nawaqanitawase scored one of the most freakish individual tries you'll see - and 20-odd kilometres back to the east his former rugby union club bumbled its way to a likely season-ending defeat by the Crusaders.
While the former Wallabies winger's jaw-dropping skills were not enough to get the Roosters home over the Bulldogs, his fend, skip, chip, regather and score went viral the world over. Channel Nine commentator Matthew Thompson described it as the "try of the decade" and one of the "greatest tries of all time", while Rugby League Immortal Andrew Johns was almost lost for words: "he hops to keep his foot [up]," Joey said.
The vision will have had Waratahs [and Wallabies] fans cursing his departure to the rival code, his exit only amplified on Friday by the fact that the man both rugby teams recruited for reportedly the highest sum ever paid for a player of either game in Australia, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, was seated in the stands at Allianz Stadium nursing a broken jaw.
Would it have been nice to have Nawaqanitawase in the sky, rather than navy, blue, on Friday night? Absolutely. Would his inclusion in the Waratahs squad that ran out against the Crusaders on Friday night, or in any of their 12 games so far this year, made a tangible difference to the results? Unlikely.
That's no slight on Nawaqanitawase's insane skill, nor the form he showed for the Wallabies at the 2023 Rugby World Cup where he was one of the country's best players, it is merely a reflection in the holes of the Waratahs' recruitment and some of the decisions they have made, and in some cases are forced to make, in one of the toughest sporting markets in the world.
NSW coach Dan McKellar only had a short window in which to finalise the franchise's recruitment after signing on as coach in July last year. He was probably fortunate, too, that Melbourne Rebels had gone under and there were a swag of players looking for new homes, most notably for the Waratahs in the form of Wallabies Taniela Tupou and Rob Leota, that added genuine class to the NSW pack. Tupou's lacklustre form, however, will have been a huge disappointment.
But glance back to the Waratahs title-winning season of 2014 and one obvious difference stands out, which also underlines the holes in the NSW recruitment strategy.
In Michael Cheika's team that ran out in the 2014 final, coincidentally against the Crusaders, the Waratahs locks were Wallabies second-rower Kane Douglas and brutally physical South African recruit Jacques Potgieter.
So good was Potgieter that season, the intense South African edge he added to the NSW pack, that many good judges regard him as the Waratahs' greatest recruit ever. Douglas, meanwhile, made tackles, hit rucks and won his lineout ball. He would be a key part of Australia's run to the World Cup final the following year.
Will Skelton, meanwhile, came off the bench that night against the Crusaders, a player who has since gone on to forge one of the strongest European careers in recent memory, earning himself the honour of Wallabies Rugby World Cup 2023 captain along the way.
Lining up for the Waratahs at lock on the weekend were 22-year-old Miles Amatosero, who is in just his second Super Rugby season, and veteran Fergus Lee-Warner, who is just a couple of weeks back from a long-term injury. Neither player, through no fault of their own, are anywhere near the quality of Potgieter, Douglas or Skelton. Nor are they the sole reason for another bleak Waratahs season.
But there are other locks in Australia who would mix it with that trio; the problem is for the Waratahs that despite being Sydney-born and raised, they are playing their Super Rugby in other parts of the country. Come on down, Nick Frost and Jeremy Williams - the duo who might just be Joe Schmidt's Wallabies locking combination for the first Test with the British & Irish Lions, too.
The issue is that for so long the Waratahs' brand has almost depended on the franchise having an outside back who scores the tries and produces the moments that puts bums on seats, players who they can sell to the tough Sydney market to help turn turnstiles over and hock merchandise to. Even then, it hasn't been enough to keep the franchise from being swallowed up and now run by Rugby Australia.
Former NSW coach Darren Coleman told ESPN at the end of 2022 that he wanted to sign a rugged tighthead lock, but such a move never eventuated. And while such players don't grow on trees, the Waratahs let two current Wallabies second-rowers slip right from between their fingers.
First Frost was lost to the Crusaders Academy before he wound up at the Brumbies, while Williams' departure stings even more given he played for the Waratahs but was then lost to Perth, where he now captains the Western Force. The belief that players get better after leaving the Waratahs was often regarded as a thinly-veiled swipe at NSW Rugby, but in Williams' case it is the cold-hard truth. Fly-half Ben Donaldson is another player for whom that comment holds more than just a shred of merit.
McKellar, meanwhile, couldn't hide his frustration when summing up his side's listless first-half and eventual 48-33 loss to the Crusaders on Friday night. Just who his stinging rebukes were aimed at remains to be seen, but the organisation, blessed with greater access to rugby talent than anywhere else in the country, just can't seem to get it right.
"There are some people who are too comfortable. That needs to change. If you're too comfortable, just happy to be here and wear the tracksuit, that will change," the coach blasted.
"It's definitely not an ability thing. There's no way it's an ability thing.
"I've been here a while now, a number of months now, and there's some things that are going to take time to change.
"We showed some fight in the second half but you can't get to 33-7 at halftime and get a spray from the coach to then get a reaction.
"This is a professional game. We've got to be like that from the very first minute.
"I've got to figure it out. People need to buy into the change. Otherwise we'll change other things."
A defeat by Western Force in Perth on Saturday night will officially end the Waratahs' season. McKellar, signed for two more years beyond 2025, has already made recruitment moves in signing former Wallabies lock Matt Philip, another Sydneysider first lost to Melbourne Rebels, so too 2023 World Cup back-rower Pete Samu, which goes someway to offsetting the departures of Langi Gleeson and Rob Leota.
Would it be nice to have Nawaqanitawase back at Daceyville? Would he push for Lions inclusion? Should a conversation be had about a return for the 2027 World Cup be had? The answer to all three of those questions is obvious.
But at the same time it shouldn't be a priority either. For while all the viral try-scoring videos in the world are nice to have, and help grow a team's brand and popularity, they are short-term rushes of sporting sugar. And that is not what the Waratahs need, no matter how much they might have cursed Nawaqanitawase's code switch the past few days.