The Wallabies' drought-breaking triumph over the Springboks is now little more than a distant memory, after Australia slumped to a second straight loss to Italy and fifth defeat in their last six Tests on Sunday morning [AEDT] in Udine.
Joe Schmidt's side are mired in a massive hole, and with two tougher Tests to come against Ireland and France there is every chance they will not climb out of it before the year is out.
After running up a bonus-point win over the world champions just three months ago, Australia were easily second best against an Italian outfit ranked a full nine positions lower than the Springboks. It finished 26-19 in Udine, just three years after Italy created history in Florence with their maiden victory over the Wallabies.
Such results make World Rugby happy, providing the governing body proof that the Test game has never been tighter at the highest level. But that is no solace for the Wallabies, Schmidt, nor the broader Australian rugby community that is now left scratching its collective head as to just what has gone wrong.
On the field, in Udine at least, that wasn't hard to work out. Australia's breakdown was woeful.
The Wallabies' limp work in the contact was summed up by their most capped ever player, James Slipper, who has now traded the rigours of Test rugby for the far more comfortable surrounds of a television studio.
"They beat us to the collision, they beat us to the ball," Slipper said in the Stan Sport post-game.
Amen, Slips.
Australia simply weren't good enough on the ground. While Fraser McReight again picked off a game-high three breakdown penalties after his Twickenham heroics last week, it was Italy's collective work at the tackle, and their second-half defence, that secured the Azzurri another memorable moment in their rugby history.
The hosts rode the Wallabies' indiscipline - the penalty count finished 7-13 against -- to stay in touch in the first half after Australia scored two tries through Matt Faessler and Angus Bell.
First the hooker finished off a dominant Wallabies maul just after the opening quarter, with Bell then adding a second for Australia from close range 11 minutes later, the loosehead prop stretching out his left arm to plant the ball down next to the left upright after a rare proficient Wallabies build-up.
But the signs that Australia, again, weren't quite at the races were already there. Not only were they getting beaten to the punch at the breakdown, but they were also inaccurate when they did get there in reasonable time, with skipper Harry Wilson pinged for a neck roll.
While the Wallabies skipper's contact was glancing, it did again underscore exactly what England had highlighted last week ahead of the Test at Twickenham. It's clear the No. 8 must improve his work at the collision, while Wilson also later gave away two second-half maul penalties at a crucial stage.
The Wallabies' best piece of attack had come earlier in the first half as Carter Gordon, playing his first game of rugby in 18 months, tore through the heart of the Italian defence on the wrap and then fired a precision pass that hit winger Corey Toole on the chest.
While the play broke down a couple of phases later after, yep, you guessed it, Australia were too slow to the breakdown, it was a sign of the skills that Gordon can bring to the Wallabies at No. 10.
The Italians levelled the scores with their fourth penalty after the break, the hosts growing into the game, buoyed by their constant obliteration of the Wallabies' attacking breakdown.
Then came the stroke of luck that should have stunned Australia into action. Playing the whistle, Carter Gordon swooped on the loose ball after Wilson had it stripped by Manuel Zuliani, the No. 10 running away to score after stepping Italy winger Monty Ioane.
The Television Match Official was called into play but despite evidence to suggest the last touch had come from the Wallabies skipper, the try instead stood, much to the disgust of the parochial home crowd.
But instead of rallying the Wallabies, it was the Italians who then seemed to click into gear.
Wilson's two soft penalties marched the Azzurri upfield and with their attack starting to flow as Australia's hit the skids, the hosts shifted the ball wide to Louis Lynagh who stepped inside Andrew Kellaway and muscled through the cover defence of Harry Potter to score just before the hour mark and level the scores once more at 19-all.
But there was worse to come for Australia, with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii yellow-carded for a high tackle on Italian No. 10 Paola Garbisi in the phase before Lynagh's score.
Using their one-man advantage, the Italians made it back-to-back converted tries as scrum-half Stephen Varney sniped his way down the right touchline, before the play crisscrossed the field thereafter, Ioane slipping outside Potter to give the hosts a lead they would not relinquish.
Despite having Rob Valetini and Pete Samu on the bench, the Wallabies could not find the energy nor the breakdown improvement they needed to regain the momentum, even once Suaalii returned, to avoid a second straight defeat by Italy.
And in what was the perfect summation of a wretched 80 minutes for the Wallabies, their last chance at snatching a draw was snuffed out by replacement Federico Ruzza, who forced Australia to concede their 13th and final penalty.
While Tom Hooper was the guilty party in that moment, the back-rower was one of the Wallabies' better players in Udine, carrying on 14 occasions. But as the clock wound down its final 30 seconds, the gap between the Exeter man's carry, and his arriving cleaners, was just too great. It was an embarrassing end to an embarrassing 80 minutes for Australia.
Take nothing away from Italy, who tackled at an outstanding 92% success rate, despite being asked to make 86 more tackles than their opponents. But aside from Carter Gordon's first-half break and a snipe from his halves partner Jake Gordon, the Wallabies didn't exactly throw any testing attacking shapes at Italy however. The hosts appeared infinitely comfortable defensively.
Whether Carter Gordon gets another crack against Ireland next week might well be dictated by his troublesome quad, which eventually forced the code-hopper off in the 55th minute. His replacement Tane Edmed was unable to spark anything in a static Wallabies attack.
And therein lies the problem for Schmidt, it feels as though the rest of the world has worked the Wallabies out. And with the situation at No. 10 perhaps more muddled than ever, it's hard to see how they can find the points to upset either Ireland or France over the next fortnight. Those two heavyweights will be all too aware that Australia are still easy targets on the high ball, too.
"I'm pretty gutted to be honest. We were just a little bit flat, I said progress isn't linear, but that's a flat performance," Schmidt told Stan Sport. "That's a dip we can't afford to have, and we've got two massive games coming up now.
"We're just going to have to recuperate as best we can, and we'll be ripping into the Irish game now."
Asked what was going wrong with the Wallabies' attack, Schmidt put it down to a combination of factors.
"I felt we went side to side a little bit and once we got behind [on the scoreboard] we probably overplayed," he said. "And when we did try to [kick] the ball in behind, we put it out on the full a couple of times, didn't quite find the touch another time, and it just means that we allow them to have access back into our half.
"And once we gave a penalty in our half, they accumulated those four penalties in the first half -- we matched them with two good tries -- but then second half, I just felt that we overplayed and we were static, and we needed to go back and get some energy about us, particularly at that breakdown.
"We shouldn't be giving up those breakdown penalties."
Amen, Joe. Now you need to fix it.