Passes that weren’t on were pushed. Any intent to slow the game down and take Japan out of their comfort zone had clearly been thrown out the window.

Leading 17-13 at half-time, Rennie needed to tweak the way his team was playing. If he didn’t, a shock loss to the Brave Blossoms was genuinely on the cards.

Too often in the Michael Cheika era, the Wallabies would bang their heads against the wall for the entire 80 minutes, regardless of how well a pre-match plan was working.

Rennie showed his class - and so did his team - as soon as play resumed. There was no more frantic pace.

The Wallabies knew they could no longer play the way they might have if Kerevi had been in the side, and adjusted accordingly.

They opened up a 27-13 lead in the 15 minutes after the break. It was a period that showed the players, not the coaches, were driving the style of game that played straight into Japan’s hands.

But with a two-try lead behind them, the Wallabies reverted to type. They went wide without earning the right to do so.

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A Cooper cut-out pass was intercepted and, until Connal McInerney crashed over for a late, rolling-maul try on debut, a first loss to Japan in the 46-year history between the teams was on the cards.

Some shine around Cooper’s return wore off as the full-time siren blared. His spot may be in doubt at the selection table on Tuesday week.

The same can’t be said about Kerevi, who will play against Scotland at Murrayfield in a fortnight, the first of three Tests in three weeks.

Japan showed Rennie’s Wallabies are far more reliant on the star centre than they thought.

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