What a match! What a tour. And what a superb game is rugby when its derring-do is derring-done like this.
True, our blokes narrowly went down 22-19 to a mighty Irish side celebrating its 150th year of playing raging rugby in these parts, but that was, seriously, the only bit of bad news on an otherwise wonderful day.
For let the word go forth from this place and this time – as ye of broken noses and puffy eyebrows have borne witness, and will pass on to those of creaky knees and cranky hips across our brown and pleasant land: though long has she laboured, Australia has given birth once more to a Wallabies side not just worthy of being proud of, but worth celebrating.
When winger Max Jorgensen went over in the corner twenty minutes in to give Wallabies a 10-0 lead, the Irish knew they had a serious fight on their hands, and moreso when the score stood at just 13-5 at half-time, with only one Irish try – to their appropriately named breakaway Josh van der Flier – to show for their efforts.
But the most emblematic thing of the entire effort by the Wallabies was something that happened two minutes into the second half. As an Irish winger tore towards the Wallaby line, the tackle on him by his opposing number Andrew Kellaway was so good that the ball spilled free. Our veteran prop James Slipper, gathered it in just centimetres from the........