While they’re keen to leave behind comparisons, the Wallabies need only look back 18 months or gaze across the field this Saturday to know the speed at which a team can rebound.
Wallabies Head Coach Michael Cheika disputed the notion that he ever had a honeymoon, coming into the job on the 2014 Spring tour when the Wallabies lost three of four Tests, before making a World Cup final run the next season.
On Tuesday he said he had more confidence than ever in his players as they sit 2-0 and winger Rob Horne echoed that faith.
“The position we're in today is that we have the team, we have the game to be where we want to be and we've let ourselves down the last couple of weeks with what we've put on the field,” he said.
“We know what we have to do and we're going to do that.
“It's completely on us. The thing about losing is it puts a microscope on yourself, pretty big, so you learn a lot from a loss as opposed to a win.
“We're working very hard on ourselves and making sure that we put ourselves in the right positions.”
Horne said while he understood fans’ perspectives on the series, as the Wallabies fight to avoid a 3-0 series, he said it was all about the minor tweaks.
“For a supporter I guess that's what you see,” he said.
“It's all big picture stuff but for us it's totally that detail that gets to the big picture and that's what we're working on.
“That's what everyday we're hammering so that if we do all our detailed stuff right then everyone on the street's a happy man.”
England number eight Billy Vunipola knows how a team can come back from his lowest point and his view is more than a little similar to the Wallabies stance.
After their World Cup failure, Vunipola said they held a faith in their own ability to rebound.
“We always felt like we were better than what we were putting out on the pitch,” he said.
“Things just needed to happen or we just needed to change something or something happens so that we realise we need to be better and I feel like are.
“We were in a bit of a rut after the world cup because it was tough but we knew if we worked hard, though, it'd work out and it'll finally come and I think that's starting to happen now.”
