Australia's papers yesterday breathed a small sigh of relief that the Wallabies finally found someone they can beat, but Sydney's Daily Telegraph exclusively claims captain George Gregan is about to announce his international career is over.
"Gregan will make a farewell appearance against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday night to close his 12-season stint as Australian halfback with a world-best 118 caps," the paper reports.
The Millennium Stadium, coincidentally, is where Gregan won the World Cup with the 1999 Wallabies under then captain John Eales. Four years since succeeding Eales, Gregan will reach 50 Tests as skipper on Saturday.
Nobody is reading too much into the victory over Ireland though; a win that helped them avoid, statistically at least, being the worst Australian rugby team in 50 years.
Under the headline 'Wallabies' monkey may become ape', the Sydney Morning Herald says that "considering how abysmally Australia performed, the monkey may soon be replaced by a big, hairy ape if the Wallabies fail to improve and finish this already disappointing tour by losing to Wales in Cardiff on Saturday".
But their chief rugby correspondent Greg Growden says beating Wales is far from guaranteed considering that, against Ireland, Australia "were able to get away with so much through the inadequacies of their opposition, who did not know what to do with any of their opportunities".
The Daily Telegraph's second story on the match, headlined 'Drought broken but no corner turned', says for long periods of Saturday's game the Wallabies "were dire, especially during the first half. They looked clueless in attack, resorting to a string of one-out charges, in a limp stanza where Ireland established a 6-3 lead and had the only try-scoring chance".
The Australian was a little more positive, with a story referring to "the courage and determination that finally allowed the Wallabies to break through yesterday for their first win in five months".
Rugby columnist Spiro Zavos, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, also accentuated the positive, saying "breaking the habit of losing, in the context of seven previous defeats suffered by the Wallabies, is more vital right now than the way the spluttering victory over Ireland was achieved".
He didn't quite manage to eliminate the negative though, adding: "it should never be imagined that this Wallabies and the coaching team have turned the corner towards a brighter future".
The future is at the forefront of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) authorities' thoughts at the moment after the Socceroos' qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Some commentators predict this could lead to soccer supplanting rugby as Australia's fourth most popular sport after Australian Rules, cricket and rugby league.
The $9 million paid at the gate for last Wednesday's Australia versus Uruguay World Cup qualifier is second only to the Wallabies versus All Blacks Bledisloe Cup as the richest match of the year.
It will gall the ARU no end that the Socceroos have done this under the guiding hand of their former chief executive, John O'Neill. O'Neill's ARU contract was not extended after the country's hugely successful hosting of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and he started a $1 million (€620,000) engagement with Football Federation Australia shortly after.
However, the sun reportedly setting on Gregan's international career will vindicate those who have called for him to be sacked, or at least demoted, in recent months. Many have pointed the finger of blame at the ARU rather than specifically at coach Eddie Jones. The Sydney Morning Herald reported before the Ireland game that "a weak head office enables a number of senior Wallabies figures, including Gregan, to basically do whatever they want.
"That didn't happen in the John O'Neill days. It does now, and it is no surprise that suddenly the Wallabies are in their worst state in years. A win over Ireland won't change that."
It remains to be seen if Gregan goes whether Jones can be far behind.
