With just one year to go until the World Cup, the fight for the Webb Ellis Cup remains as open as ever
This was perfectly reflected in the July series, with all four series involving the Rugby Championship competitors heading to the final game.
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South Africa and Argentina proved successful over Wales and Scotland, however, the Wallabies and All Blacks' defeat to England and Ireland respectively sent shockwaves across the Rugby community.
This has been complemented by a perfectly balanced Rugby Championship, with all teams left on two wins and two losses after four rounds.
With every loss, the Rankings shift and change places, decided by mere decimals as all teams between 4th-8th shifted spots last week.
Ireland and France enjoy a gap towards the rest of the teams, although recent World Cup history shows this means little when it gets into the tournament.
The Irish were in a similar position five years before once again falling in the quarter-finals to New Zealand.
What it does show is just how important finding form can be from this point onwards.
Take the Springboks for example.
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi openly credits their 2018 win against New Zealand as the flashpoint to the World Cup rise 12 months later, going on to defeat England (who were sixth at this corresponding point four years ago) in the Final.
Coach Rassie Erasmus admitted after the World Cup success a loss would've seen the end of his tenure as coach.
“I think for us with our coaching staff, they had a plan and spoke to us about a certain game to target to win because our confidence was low,” Kolisi reflected after last week's win in Sydney.
“Coach Rassie (Erasmus) said (the Wellington game) was the one that’s going to change your belief and it did. I think after that, we believed that we could change it after that.
“Everyone wants consistency, we want to stay at the top but it’s hard. Some teams perform one week, (but) they don’t the other week.
“That’s what all nations are looking for, that consistency every week but you can see every team is standing up and I think it’s brilliant for Rugby because you never know which team is going to win.”
Consistency remains the key factor Kolisi and coaches have constantly brought up in the past month.
The rise in competition means even a slightly below-standard performance leaves you vulnerable to defeat.
It's the primary reason the Wallabies find themselves in eighth, trading wins and losses with England, Argentina and South Africa.
“What we’re looking for is consistency,” Rennie reiterated after last week's defeat.
“Last week there was 70 minutes of excellent footy and we wanted to build on that. International Rugby is so tight at the moment and you only have to be a couple of cogs off and you’ll finish second which we’ve seen throughout this Rugby Championship.
“We’ve got to be better and win those key contests. We were well short in that area tonight.”
In this same period before 2019, South Africa rose from seventh to fifth after their thrilling victory in Wellington.
A win in Melbourne garners a similar rise for the Wallabies, moving from eighth to sixth.
If Dave Rennie and the Wallabies want inspriation, they don't need to look far for it.
