Wales will never look back on 2022 as a vintage year.
But with half an hour of Test rugby left to be played in the calendar year, Wales were coasting towards a rare peak in a era of troughs.
As Rio Dyer went over in the corner to open up a 21-point gap, George North turned around and aimed a jubilant punch in the air towards Glanmor's Gap, while the peerless Alun Wyn Jones and Taulupe Faletau both dropped to their haunches to suck in some oxygen after a titanic 50-minute effort.
There was a quiet determination to the Welsh players, while the Australians - loud at first - had long been silenced. A fourth consecutive win over the Wallabies - a first for Wales - was not just on the cards, but was virtually penned in ink.
Read more: Pivac makes fresh defence of Wales position ahead of World Cup planning trip
Half an hour later, Jones and Faletau were nowhere near the pitch. North was still there, but only in the capacity of once again staring away from Glanmor's Gap, wondering where it had all gone awry once more.
A week after the humiliation of Georgia came the capitulation to Australia. Once again, all North could do was drop to his haunches.
Elsewhere, Rhys Priestland pulled the red jersey over his head, unable to look. The hero last year, simply a bystander in another disaster this time around.
On the deck, Ken Owens lay motionless as the reality sunk in. Eventually, Jones ambled back to the fray from the sidelines, taking his place with other shocked, despondent Welsh faces.
All of them bereft of quite how they had ended up here once again. This injury-hit Australia side arrived in Cardiff in chipper mood and finished their trip in similar fashion.
Early on in the piece, their enthusiasm was unmistakable. "Wooo, f**k yeah, boy!" cried Folau Fainga'a after a huge hit from Langi Gleeson on Gareth Anscombe.
There was to be no whooping or hollering from Wales. They just did what they needed to do, until they didn't.
Building a lead seemed important after Georgia, so the series of scrums which went unpunished on the scoreboard before the break was particularly frustrating, although - if you remember the 2015 World Cup pool match between the two sides - not terribly unfamiliar.
Under the pump, a Welsh voice which sounded remarkably like Justin Tipuric's bemoaned the Wallabies "time-wasting" between scrums while a man down with a yellow card. Each time the Australian front-row dropped, they moved closer to another yellow.
Australian centre Len Ikitau paced around the group of forwards, slapping each of them in an attempt to influence their scrummaging.
"They don't want to scrum," cried another Welsh voice. They wouldn't have to, as Kieran Hardy tried to force his way over on the blindside, only to be held up.
As that brought an end to the first half, the Wallaby backline piled into their forwards for holding out. Tom Wright screamed in celebration as he embraced one of his pack.
Australia's warning at the scrums carried over to the second half, not that Allan Alaalatoa realised that.
"You can't do that without a warning," he protested. "I gave you one in the first half," replied referee Matthew Carley.
That should have been that. Yet it wasn't.
The sight of Anscombe writhing around on the floor, kicking the turf in agony with a shoulder injury was a precursor to what was to follow. "F**k," he mouthed as he left the field. Soon, many Welsh mouths were uttering the same expletive.
As the match progressed into the latter stages, and the scoreboard deficit reduced minute by minute, Welsh bodies became sheepish. As Jones and Faletau departed, neither looked convinced the job was done.
Heads started to go. Down to 13 themselves, they lost the plot and the trust of the referee. "No. 17, that's enough," remarked Carley in the direction of Rhodri Jones. "Have you taken over the captaincy? Well, stop then."
All after that was merely a formality as Welsh eyes once again were left to stare into the distance. As many fans headed for the exit, a certain Warren Gatland fought his way through the oncoming traffic to get pitchside for his Amazon Prime punditry duties. How often he was asked a certain question is anyone's guess.
On the pitch, as Dave Rennie and Wayne Pivac put the game to rights, the Wales coach wiped his hand over his eyes in a bleary fashion, perhaps a sign of the pressure he is under.
Fifty yards across the pitch, Gatland was adjusting the earpiece and testing his microphone: all smiles. Soon, the roles might be reversed.
READ MORE:
