The more than 26,000 Wallabies fans who packed the Allianz stadium stands would have left the venue with a smile on their faces after Joe Schmidt's Wallabies made it three from three to start the year for the first time in nine years, but the players will know they almost let a big win slip.
Shooting out of the blocks with three tries within the opening 20 minutes, the Wallabies looked certain to blow Georgia out of the water and rake up a huge score. Instead, their problem issues -- particularly poor discipline -- reared their ugly heads once again, while Schmidt's been left with plenty of questions with Australia's problematic playmaker position.
Conceding just eight penalties against Wales a week earlier, the Australians had seven before half time on Saturday afternoon, finding themselves on the wrong side of referee James Doleman from the opening minute, before they eventually finished the match with 12 on the ledger.
Looking slick with ball in hand and shooting out to a 19-3 lead a quarter of the way through the clash, the Wallabies failed to kick on or show any ruthlessness, instead they welcomed Georgia back into the match as they were quickly pinned back in their own red zone and conceded multiple penalties to give their opposition several chances to get over the whitewash. After three penalties -- and a disallowed try from a forward pass -- lock Micheil Babunashvili scored Georgia's first try of the night less than 10 minutes before half time.
Only minutes later the wheels really started to wobble for Australia, with Filipo Daugunu shown yellow -- soon upgraded to a red card -- for a clumsy and very much unintentional knee to the head of flyer Demuri Tapladze.
While the Wallabies held strong through the rest of the half, even adding to their score with the first of Fraser McReight's double through a well-constructed rolling maul, the second half couldn't have started any worse for Australia with Georgia producing two incredible tries within minutes of each other to come within two points of the Wallabies.
An incredible breakaway run from McReight, who bounced out from behind a lineout 20 metres inside their half and ran to within the five-metre line before Rob Valetini found the line, soon got the Wallabies out of their hole before he scored a second to give the side breathing room once again. But it certainly wasn't the convincing performance many people would have hoped for, most especially Schmidt.
The coach cut more of a relieved figure heading into the post-match press conference rather than a man whose side had just seen in their best start to a Test year in almost a decade.
"I don't know that I'm ever happy with our performance completely, but I'm certainly happy with some of the elements of the performance," Schmidt told reporters post-match. "I thought the way we built to a 19-3 lead was pretty dominant, and I was really happy with the way that we were pretty much dictating the game at that stage.
"But obviously it's been a bit of a recurrent theme over these three games we started to lose a little bit of discipline initially and then stacked a few penalties and put ourselves under pressure.
"I thought Filipo was unlucky. He gets a finger to the ball, it's a partial charge down, but it's one of those risk reward situations and once we lost Filipo, we're playing 14 against 15 it does become tough.
"Certainly the audition over, because I don't think that we can afford to probably be as loose with the ball to get it ripped off us and probably give up some tries that we're disappointed with.
"I think going forward to the Rugby Championship, we've learned a little bit more about the players. We haven't had time to have a good look at the game, but whatever decisions we make will be based on three games and three weeks of training.
"But I'm also realistic, I've been doing jobs similar to this for a long time and the thing that you realise is that things do take time and building combinations takes time, building a game model that people become familiar with and automate the actions that are required for that does take time. But we're out of time. We've got to be able to deliver against South Africa, which is a whole different level obviously."
Meanwhile, Ben Donaldson failed to make a case in the battle for the starting fly-half role. His afternoon couldn't have started any worse, first shanking a clearing kick that landed midfield, before he failed to find touch with a penalty kick inside Georgia's half in the opening minutes. While his game improved as the match went on, his errors didn't go unnoticed.
Noah Lolesio hardly covered himself in glory either during his short stint on the pitch after he kicked the ball dead himself when kicking for touch late in the match.
Three matches in and trialing three different 10s -- Tom Lynagh had a short cameo in the Wallabies' first win over Wales in Sydney a fortnight ago -- Schmidt acknowledged there still wasn't any certainty over who would be wearing the gold no.10 in their Rugby Championship opener against South Africa in three weeks.
"That is definitely one that we're going to have to look back and have a think about," he said. "Both guys who played tonight and Tom Lynagh, those three guys they are working hard and for them there's a lot of expectation.
"There were a few kicks tonight that that we know can be better. We've seen them kick them better and hopefully that'll be demonstrated in three weeks' time.
"I thought as the game went on, Ben Donaldson kicked better and better, kicked better at goal, kicked better for the line and Noah, he probably just tried to take a little bit too much out of the one that he put dead. I encourage them to go into that five-metre channel, we want to be able to get those lineouts as close as we can for the big men to have a crack.
"I do think it's a mental thing. There's a lot being asked of the 10s at the moment and I do think that they'll have the opportunity to improve when they can be clearer. It's a little bit cluttered for them at the moment because they drive the team around. They're trying to make decisions on the fly and then also execute their skill."
With the possibility of turning to overseas options such as Bernard Foley or Quade Cooper, Schmidt showed he plans to keep the faith with his focus on his three young playmakers.
"I do think those three guys, if we don't invest in them now, I think it'll be difficult for them and if you put them in and out, they don't get continuity, they don't build confidence, so I'm not sure individually because the coaches are a tight group, and decisions will be made on the back of what we've seen at training so far and the over the last three weeks," he said.
After last year's horror season, the Wallabies will certainly be justified in celebrating their successful start to their 2024 campaign, especially the many stunning moments they produced over the last three weeks, but there are far sterner tests on the horizon and plenty of issues that still need fixing.