“And so, yeah, it was nice to see that come to fruition. And no better man than ’Wrighty” to put the hammer down and get away.”

It was the first win for the Wallabies at Allianz Stadium since 2014, and a first win over a tier one nation since beating Wales at the end of 2022.

Wallabies halfback Jake Gordon was a deserved man of the match, guiding the side from the ruck and executing Schmidt’s style of box-kicking and structured attack.

There were plenty of questions around how the Wallabies would play under Schmidt, particularly with only a few weeks of preparation. But it was clear the basics-first, well-rehearsed attack that helped Ireland climb to the top of the rankings will be the style-book for the Wallabies from now on, and Australia repeatedly turned to their pack for a ground-and-pound assault on the Welsh line. The defence under Laurie Fisher was also noteworthy, and the only try conceded to Wales was a penalty try.

Their first try came through Taniela Tupou after a seven-phase pick-and-drive wave, and Filipo Daugunu scored a sliding when some well-rehearsed attacking structure drew a penalty advantage and the chance to try their hand wide.

“A win is really important, it always is, because that’s what you get judged on externally,” Schmidt said of the victory.

“But internally I think just some of the moments that we did really well to earn the win, that’s what will be the focus for us this week, building into (the second Test in Melbourne).

“We have a few things that we’ve been working on that are maybe a little bit different from how teams have played in Super Rugby and so the adjustment time for that to become second nature is inevitably going to take time.”

Senior statesmen like Wright, Rob Valetini and Liam Wright shone, and so, too, the cast of many impressive new faces: with Jeremy Williams getting through huge work, and Isaac Kailea showing himself as a hidden gem from the bench. Tom Lynagh nailed an ice-cold sideline conversion of Wright’s try to help keep Wales more than a score out of reach.

The Wallabies won’t be getting carried away, however, with the discipline and handling of an inexperienced Wales side mostly atrocious. It consistently released pressure on the hosts.

In what was Wales’ eighth loss in a row, coach Warren Gatland said his team was in a tough spot but bemoaned being on the wrong end of several “50-50” referee calls, and said a rolling maul try disallowed in the second half should have been awarded. Unsurprisingly, Schmidt disagreed.

But Wales’ set-pieces were dominated by the Wallabies pack, coached by Englishman Geoff Parling and new scrum coach Mike Cron.

Schmidt – who was seen belting out Advance Australia Fair – will not be pleased with the Wallabies’ discipline problems continuing, and allowing Wales to stay in the contest. They conceded 13 penalties, which is semi-standard for Australia but is five penalties off the Irish average under Schmidt.

Asked how long it had taken him to learn the Aussie national anthem, Schmidt said he’d known it for a long time, and harked back to watching powerhouse Wallabies teams in the past.

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“I’m a kid who’s watched it often enough and even the fear when some of those big players played, was probably more F-E-A-R than F-A-I-R because they certainly had a game,” he said.

“And we’d love to bring the game back to something like that where our opponents are worried about us and they have to do some homework. There’s a real sleeves rolled up mentality in the group and I’m really enjoying that.”