Australia fans do not currently know whether to laugh or cry. Even this bonus-point win felt like a mixed blessing, technically keeping the team alive in the tournament but also serving to extend their qualification agony for another week. Unless Fiji contrive to lose against Portugal in their final Pool C match this weekend it will be game over for the Wallabies regardless.
At least they avoided the ultimate indignity of defeat by a spirited Portuguese side who asked enough attacking questions to delight both their travelling fans and their growing band of neutral admirers worldwide. Despite being temporarily reduced to 13 men at one stage in the second half, however, Eddie Jones’s side had a sufficiently big lead to avoid the unthinkable.
