As Wales spent time living up in the Swiss Alps, Australia were merely waking up to the size of the mountain facing them ahead of the World Cup in France.
While Warren Gatland puts his side through their paces at a two-week training camp in Fiesch, Eddie Jones' second spell with the Wallabies suffered a false start in Pretoria.
His first game back in charge of Australia saw his side suffer a one-sided hammering in Pretoria. The 43-12 defeat to the Springboks has already been described as a "s**t show" by one Australian media outlet.
Censorship clearly isn't such an issue in the press down under, nor is writing scathing copy. The former England coach, half a year from being hounded out of HQ, has received a shoeing in his homeland after just 80 minutes of rugby.
This, after all, wasn't necessarily South Africa's strongest side, with some of the squad already in New Zealand preparing for the clash with the All Blacks. Last week, Jones had lamented not playing the South African's strongest side, calling the team Jacques Nienaber picked a "half-baked Springboks side".
Naturally, that backfired on Jones after a thrashing that saw the Wallabies offer little in all facets. Afterwards, when his comments were put to him by one of the local press pack, Jones took issue with the journalist.
“South Africans are good at winning. You don’t have to be a smartarse mate,” Jones replied.
After the press conference finished, Jones had a second dig, saying on his way out: “You don’t have to be a smartarse mate. You should have more respect mate. I never said that mate. I said we always want to play the best. Show some respect."
And so, just as Eddie turned on the press pack, the Australian press pack turned on Eddie.
The Australian called the performance “an embarrassment” that “can’t be repeated”.
“Even before the mismatch, Jones’ choices against the Springboks left plenty of long-suffering Wallabies’ fans wondering what he was thinking,” they added.
“Wholesale changes need to be made before next weekend’s clash against Argentina in Sydney because nothing wakes players up from a slumber than being dropped.”
“We allowed ourselves to believe in an Eddie miracle. The Wallabies’ reality is more sobering,” said one piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“In the end, the Wallabies’ performance in Pretoria showed no real sign of progress from the [Dave] Rennie years – particularly the discipline – and in several areas, the Australian side even regressed.”
Roar, the site behind the "s**t show" remark, struggled to find the positives in this defeat.
"It’s almost obligatory for writers to end any account of a hiding – and there can be no sugar-coating that this was anything else but – by pointing to at least one or two positives; to give fans at least some small morsel to carry forward into next week," they wrote.
"But really, what is there to say, without making stuff up? Pretend that this was just an unfortunate blip, or another bunch of those lessons that will no doubt be learned? That is, until it becomes apparent that they haven’t been?
"The Wallabies made just three entries into the Springbok 22 in 80 minutes of rugby. From that came two tries, so at least red zone conversion is looking promising.
"There were flashes of inspiration from Carter Gordon in his brief cameo, including a delightful maiden Test try, but that’s no signal to go seeking miracles in the wrong place. With their pack so comprehensively outplayed, and Nic White commanding such an integral playmaker role, does anyone really think that the Wallabies, or Gordon himself, at such an early stage of his career, would be better served by him starting, and enduring more of that?
"One match is far too soon to start making judgments about Jones, other than to say, like Edmund Hillary at Everest Base Camp, strapping on his backpack and gazing upwards, he has a mountain of work ahead of him."
Putting across the point that Test rugby is all about asking questions, they surmised that the only question being asked would be made by fans. Namely, “Why did I sit up into the middle of the night for this?”
Jones has just four games between now and the World Cup to make things right. There's just six games between the match against Wales in Lyon.
Both Jones and Gatland will have played Fiji by then, so we'll know by September 24 if there's been any extra spanners in the works.
Regardless of whether Fiji do knock over either Wales or Australia, that clash in Lyon will still be crucial for both Gatland and Jones.
After a tumultuous Six Nations, Wales are more than aware of the size of the mountain they've got to scale. With the warm-ups to come next month, they'll be hoping the work they've done between cable car rides in Switzerland will have helped them some of the way up.
As for Australia, it would appear that those following closely down under believe they're still stuck at base camp.
