Wallabies assistant Dan Palmer believes the current squad has the potential to create something special, provided they channel the harsh lessions from this campaign.
The Wallabies entered the World Cup with one of the youngest squads in history, which was further ravaged by the losses of Will Skelton and Taniela Tupou.
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In the final minutes against Portugal, only Rob Valetini (38) had over 25 caps in the forward pack, with every player in the forwards playing at their first World Cup.
With Angus Bell (22) and Nick Frost (23) emerging as genuine Test stars, Palmer has faith the Wallabies are heading in the right direction whilst keeping one eye on the potential they could be playing in the quarter-finals if Fiji lose by eight or more to Portugal.
“They're certainly looking ahead. It's a young group who I think if we keep the core of this group together can be a really strong Wallabies team,” he told reporters.
“We're all obviously disappointed with how the first few weeks here have gone.
“I'm sure they're looking forward in terms of putting some better performances on the field but they’re still focused on the task at hand, we're not entirely out of the competition yet.”
As an ex-Wallaby, Palmer understands the disappointment the players will be feeling, who will take a couple of days off to refresh before returning to camp.
He believes the back-to-back losses can be the making of them if they can overcome the scarring and use it as fuel for the future.
“You've got to make sure you learn from it,” he explained.
“When things like this happen it's important you spend the time to debrief, review, make sure you learn from it and actually get a plan together going forward.
“Just having the experience is not going to do anything but just spending the time actually going through it, talking to each other about it, talking to the coaches about it and getting a plan together is the most important thing. The experiences are one side but spending the time learning from it is the most important thing.”
Palmer will head to Leicester after the World Cup campaign, joining former Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar.
