At the risk of poking the dragon, it would be almost unforgivable for the Wallabies to blow a chance of a grand slam by losing to this Wales side after their efforts at Twickenham.
Wales do have some terrific players. Hooker Dewi Lake is well on his way to becoming world-class, if he isn’t already, while No.7 Jac Morgan is already surely deep in the plans of next year’s Lions coach, Andy Farrell.
Wales five-eighth Gareth Anscombe.Credit: Getty Images
But it is extremely difficult for two players to carry an entire side, and last week’s injuries to halfback Tomos Williams and big winger Mason Grady has robbed coach Warren Gatland of two more front-liners.
The Warren-ball era is long gone and even though Gatland does have one big body in the midfield in outside-centre Llewellyn, the 25-year-old isn’t in the same class as generational players such as Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies.
Playing inside the No.13, Ben Thomas has shown some decent signs as a second playmaker, but he too will be a target in defence after struggling with Fijian tank Josua Tuisova last week.
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The Wallabies still have to get up again after the highs of Twickenham. That’s the big challenge for any team and one they failed miserably at in Argentina during the Rugby Championship.
But, you would hope the accumulated pain of years of underachievement and jokes at their expense is starting to build a deeper resilience. When the Wallabies won last week, they immediately made reference to derogatory comments aimed at them by former England and British and Irish Lions halfback Ben Youngs.
However, this was merely echoing a sentiment that has clearly been bubbling away among the Australian player base for quite some time.
When Rob Valetini won the John Eales Medal, he spoke of trying to put Australian rugby “in a better place”, and when the Junior Wallabies beat South Africa in May, captain Toby Macpherson hit the mic post-match to state: “We’re sick of being in the position we’re in.”
Something is building when you start hearing the same message at various levels of the game, and as a result, you wouldn’t expect the Wallabies to be particularly sympathetic to the Welsh.
The grand slam still looks like a devilishly difficult assignment, with the Scots and Irish to follow the Welsh at the end of a long year.
But the Welsh are at a particularly vulnerable point in their history, beset by financial issues off the field and now struggling to replace a generation of players on the field.
It’s a Test the Wallabies should win, and win well.