It was one of those strange moments when you thought your eyes were playing tricks on you.
After months of excruciating Super Rugby tournament viewing where acceptable Australian team performances have been as rare as a Bill Pulver public appearance, suddenly we had something to marvel.
Yes, it did happen. The rewind button on the remote control confirmed it. We did see an Australian player actually making an impact on his New Zealand opponents, bustling, flicking and pushing big names aside to score one of the best tries of the year.
Even better it was a Test player.
If you haven't seen it, you will- as it ranks as one of the few dominant Australian moments in a barren 12-month period where they have found it impossible to register a win, or register anything of worth against Kiwi teams.
It came in the final moments of the Waratahs' match against the Chiefs in Hamilton. The Waratahs went through their usual dopey routine of bringing the referee into play through senseless acts where Tolu Latu and Paddy Ryan were sent to the sinbin for respectively tripping an opponent or unnecessarily being a he-man when coming in late for a scuffle.
So, no surprises that the better disciplined Chiefs were well ahead, until a far too late revival from the Waratahs. With six minutes to go they still thought they were a chance and decided to spread the ball wide to Sekope Kepu, who was lurking near the sideline.
The role of a tighthead prop in attack is usually to make sure they don't drop the ball, and instead offload to someone who looks athletic. But Kepu had other ideas. From 60 metres out, he decided to take the entire Chiefs defence on.
First, he had to brush off winger James Lowe, who had bothered the Waratahs all game with his precise running and kicking. That achieved, Kepu confronted No 10 Aaron Cruden. Kepu weaved around him, and then had the Chiefs extraordinary fullback Damian McKenzie by his side being a pest.
For numerous metres, McKenzie attempted to grab him, tried to bring him down, but Kepu swatted him away before falling just short of the Chiefs line. A desperate crawl, and Kepu was there. Admittedly Kepu is one of the more agile props running around. But it was still a rousing moment in an otherwise glum weekend for Australian Rugby. It showed there was still a bit of spark left in a spluttering motor, that will need to be back to full throttle by this Saturday afternoon when Kepu and his fellow Wallabies start the June domestic international series against Fiji in Melbourne.
Michael Cheika, who today will at last get his hands on the Wallaby squad, would have found the weekend's viewing tough going at times. First, he lost one of his Test centres Samu Kerevi through an ankle injury in the Reds-Blues game. Cheika also would not have missed Test fullback candidate Karmichael Hunt being shown up defensively during the Blues' first try.
Onto the Waratahs- Chiefs game, where Kepu early on missed an important tackle on Brodie Retallick, followed by the home team exposing Israel Folau who at times was perched far too deep at fullback, enabling them to make ground through clever chip kicks over the NSW defence. Then Wallabies squad newcomer Ned Hanigan was bumped off easily in one tackle, while his pace at times left much to be desired.
In the Brumbies-Rebels game, several Wallabies had the fumbles, while there were concerns the squad's backup scrumhalf Joe Powell was going to fall in the trap of too many wayward box kicks. But Powell got that out of his system early, and his performance picked up the longer the game went. Reece Hodge looked out of sorts, while Marika Koroibete, though excellent in defence, is not exactly great in the kicking department.
Onto the Force-Hurricanes fixture, where Australia's premier lock Adam Coleman looked decidedly wonky after a heavy tackle, which could easily see him out of contention for the Fiji Test. Dane Haylett-Petty at least looked reasonable, scoring an opportunistic try, before being ridiculously sent to the sinbin for something that was anything but dangerous play, while Richard Hardwick finished the game off perfectly with a head down, bum up attack at the line after the bell.
No real epic triumphs there, but a few elements that Cheika can still work with- especially a certain big hombre's determined canter.
It wouldn't surprise if Cheika shows a replay of the Kepu try to his squad this week and says simply: "Okay, dare you to beat that."
In trying times, any inspiration is good inspiration.