Spectacular try and victory in the bank, Nic White soaked up the buzz of a memorable night with the rest of the Optus Stadium crowd.
Minus most the healthy Kiwi contingent, the record 61,000-odd Perth crowd lingered in the stands for 30 minutes after the game, not wanting a special night end. Johnny Farnham and Daryl Braithwaite pumped through the speakers.
After a tough few years of fighting to maintain belief when most everyone else had dropped off, the Wallabies had earned the pats on the back.
"Obviously it’s a win against the All Blacks, it’s a good feeling,” White said.
"We’ll enjoy it now. It’s a good feeling after the game seeing all the Wallabies fans sticking around for a while and do the round. Jimmy Barnes was playing. You enjoy that moment.”
A quieter buzz filled the dressing room but, before long, the switch was flicked. It was the start of a new week.
Coach Michael Cheika arrived at the post-match press conference and echoed what he’d said on television, and then again to the players in the sheds.
All we have done is buy a ticket to Auckland, he said.
The rest of Australia may have been buzzing with optimism and re-awoken positivity, but Cheika was sticking firm to Kipling’s advice about treating the two imposters, triumph and disaster, just the same.
Over the next hour several players also fronted the media, and along with the words belief and confidence, the one that kept up popping up was “opportunity”.
"These opportunities don’t come around all that much very often so we’ll try to make the most of it,” White said.
The opportunity is to win the Bledisloe Cup, and if you thought wins over the All Blacks were rare, try actual, real-life chances to win the famous silver urn back.
In the 17 years since New Zealand ended Australia’s five-year hold in 2002, the Wallabies have only ever gone into game two of the series with a live chance of wining the Bledisloe Cup four times.
This week will be the fifth.
But as the teams of 2007, 2008, 2014 and 2015 remember, the hardest part is yet to come. Each time the Wallabies have had to back up their win (or draw) by ending the Eden Park hoodoo, and each time they’ve come unstuck.
And how. The All Blacks are never more motivated than after a loss, and playing at their spiritual home, the average score in those four potential Bledisloe surrenders has been 39-13 to black.
Samu Kerevi described the the Perth result as a “job half done” on Sunday but White knows all too well that’s probably overstating it. A quarter-done, perhaps.
He scored a try off the bench in Australia’s win in Sydney their last “live” Bledisloe Cup game win in 2015, and then started in the 41-13 defeat a week later, too.
“We’re coming up against a bit of a beast over there in Eden Park, a place where we haven’t won in a long time, going for a trophy we haven’t won in a long time,” White said.
"So four years ago we’ll remember that. We won that game in Sydney and then went over there and got bumped."
"They’re tough to beat there. So we’ve got ourselves an opportunity but that’s all it is at the moment.
"As I said, it’s important now for us to recover, look at areas to improve and areas where we did well as well and try to take that opportunity.”
White’s excellent return to the Wallabies, after four years in France and England, has got people looking back at the manner of his departure in 2015.
White missed selection for the Rugby World Cup squad, behind Will Genia and Nick Phipps, with Matt Giteau acting as the third no.9.
It was a blow but it wasn’t the reason he moved offshore; he’d signed a deal with Montpellier in January of that year, looking to see the world a bit more.
But White isn’t among those looking back. Asked if the disappointment of the Eden Park loss and World Cup omission had burned in him in the last four years, White said: "Not much to be honest. That’s four years ago now.”
"I’ve played a lot of rugby (since) and it’s a completely different time, different group and we’re trying to build some momentum here, some belief and as I said we’ve got an opportunity now to go over there and that’s all it is at the moment, an opportunity, and we’ll work hard this week to hopefully take that,” White said.
Pigeon-holed as a box-kicking nine at the Brumbies - due to the instruction and game plans of Jake White - White has developed his game considerably while at top English side Exeter.
The Chiefs are a possession team and White is now one of the highest-passing halfbacks in the Premiership, and that has suited his Wallabies return perfectly.
White’s passing and unpredictable option-taking at the ruck were one of the big factors in the Wallabies finally nailing the up-tempo rhythm in attack they’ve been searching for.
White appeared to fire up his running game more than usual, too, in Perth. But he said it wasn’t a deliberate tactic.
"I don’t go out there with the intention of pre-planning anything,” White said.
"You don’t know what the opposition is going to throw at you so if there are opportunities, take them and if there’s not, just pass it. We’re building, building some belief, building some momentum with the way we want to play the game, we’re not there yet.
"There will be plenty of errors we will look back on but there is plenty of good stuff happening at the moment and we’ll enjoy it now. We’ll recover, look at the game. These opportunities don’t come around very often but that’s all it is – it’s just an opportunity. So there is a big task ahead of us.”
The Wallabies will stay on message this week, knowing full well that the All Blacks use Aussie hubris as an alternative source of renewable energy.
But armed with a fair contingent of squad members who’ve been there and haven’t done that, the Wallabies will also know they’ve never had a better shot at breaking the two biggest records in Australian rugby at the same time.
Eden Park and the Bledisloe.
"You’ll have to ask them why they go up to another level over there,” White said.
"It will go up another level so, again, we’ll have belief after tonight in what we can do.
“But it’s going to be one for the ages when we get the result. We’ve got an opportunity now to do something special but that’s all it is. An opportunity."
