After 10 days of uncertainty it's finally been confirmed. James O'Connor will be lining up for the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup. Too bad it only took a 50 hour round the world trip from Sydney to London back to Sydney again and a media circus to get the job done.
Packing his bags earlier this week and setting off on a Monday night flight bound for London, O'Connor said farewell to Australia and Wallabies fans with a simple Instagram post captioned "This is not goodbye.. It's see you soon.. hopefully.. Bledisloe" alongside a fingers-crossed emoji.
O'Connor made it no secret his ambitions to remain in Australia and line-up once again for the Wallabies and have another crack at winning back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in over two decades. Despite being contracted to UK Premiership rugby club, Leicester, the playmaker had been given their blessing to remain in Australia if needed for the remainder of the Rugby Championship. It's baffling then that he wasn't told on Sunday at the very latest to cancel his flight and remain in Sydney.
Speaking to media last week Joe Schmidt was clearly still debating whether the group would need the 35-year-old ahead of the Bledisloe series. But given his experiment starting Tane Edmed against Argentina in Sydney failed to produce results, Tom Lynagh was questionable in his return a week earlier, and Ben Donaldson hasn't played a minute of rugby since he was ruled out of the South Africa tour last month, the coach should have had a clear picture of what was needed by Saturday night.
Despite the Wallabies' loss to the Pumas, just hours later it was confirmed their two losing bonus points had done enough to elevate them to the top of the RC table with just a solitary point separating them from the All Blacks and Springboks with two Tests left to play out. With a 10-year RC drought on the line and the Wallabies in one of their strongest positions in years to challenge for the Bledisloe, why Schmidt allowed O'Connor to leave the country is baffling.
While many will sniff at the mention of player welfare given the fly-half will have spent the 24-hour flight to London at the pointy end of the plane and will do so again on the way back, it shouldn't be ignored the effects 50 hours in the air over just a few days will have on the body. Let's not forget about jetlag and how cruel that can be to the body.
With so little time to prepare it has also left Rugby Australia scrambling to determine whether to have O'Connor return to Sydney to join the group on their flight to Auckland on Sunday or if he should fly directly to New Zealand and meet the squad there. For all the right steps RA and the Wallabies have taken over the last two years, this feels like a misstep in management.
This isn't the first time O'Connor has been subject to the whims of Schmidt's last-minute decisions either.
Just months ago, the No.10 was on his way to organise his UK visa ahead of his original flight to join Leicester when he ran into his Wallabies teammates who confirmed he had been included in the squad for the British & Irish Lions series. O'Connor had failed to see a missed call from Schmidt the night before and thought his Wallabies push was over. Two hours later he was fronting up for the squad announcement press conference at Suncorp stadium.
While he wouldn't feature in the Lions series, he would be a standout performer in their shock win over the Springboks in Johannesburg, leading the side to their first win at Ellis Park in 62 years. A week later he almost achieved the incredible with the side falling just short of a win in Cape Town. In Townsville he would be instrumental in the Wallabies' come-from-behind win over the Pumas and came close to doing it again in Sydney last weekend.
There's no doubt O'Connor won't be complaining about the situation, given how desperate he's been to return to the set up over the past three years and his determination to prove he can be an asset to the group in the lead up to the 2027 World Cup, but yo-yoing is hardly confidence-building.
ESPN Scrum Reset guest Christy Doran has gone as far as labelling the Wallabies coach 'Sleepy Joe' given his tendency to leave his decisions late.
With the All Blacks in crisis mode and the Wallabies generating momentum, the decision to recall O'Connor is the right one, but the time it's taken to reach said decision needs to be brought into question.