The international window has closed, and most people have moved on. How Wales and Australia must feel they could join them. But, no, they must rouse themselves once more – in Australia’s case for a fifth weekend in a row – to satisfy the baying hordes of fans and corporate suits.
Both might feel the poor relations of their respective circles, all the more so in their battered and weakened states – and a cursory glance at their walking wounded and positions on the rankings ladder will supply ample reason for them to feel that way. Wales are coming off the fresh indignity of a home defeat to Georgia, while Australia were hardly any more enamoured of their first defeat to Italy in Florence the weekend before that.
