If the Super Rugby Pacific finals play out as expected this weekend, Australia's involvement in the 2026 tournament will have come to an end by approximately 7.15pm [AEST] on Saturday night.
By finishing fifth and sixth respectively, the Reds and Brumbies are in the unenviable position of having to create Super Rugby history by becoming the first Australian team to win a finals match in New Zealand. As a collective unit, Aussie franchises are 0-21 in playoff games across the ditch.
With the Chiefs and Hurricanes in supreme form, there might be more chance of the sun rising in the west come Sunday morning than either the Reds or Brumbies surviving another week of Super Rugby.
For that reason, then, this weekend's most consequential game from an Australian rugby perspective might actually be played in Tokyo, where thousands of fans will flock to Japan's Olympic Stadium for the final of League One.
For amid the gloom of another failed season for the NSW Waratahs, bubbling away in the background for months has been this question: Should a nearly-37-year-old Bernard Foley be brought back for one final season in sky blue?
The fact that Foley has helped steer Kubota Spears to Sunday's Top League decider, against the Dave Rennie-coached Kobe Steelers, suggests there is enough surface evidence to not cast the idea aside completely.
And then there are the stats. In the 18 games he has played ahead of Sunday's final, Foley has scored 181 points, with a 77.3% goal-kicking, and scoring three tries along the way. Furthermore, he has marshalled a Kubota backline that includes three of the top four ranked players for line breaks, while the Spears themselves scored the second most tries [107], 16 short of their opponents on Sunday.
In his four previous seasons in Japan, Foley has a title and a further runner-up finish with Kubota, his form in 2022 seeing him win a Test recall under then-Wallabies coach Rennie, coincidentally.
But that was four years ago. And the question as to whether that, at age 37 next year, he can be of value to not only the Waratahs, but so too the Wallabies, is front and centre for NSW coach Dan McKellar and Rugby Australia's director of performance, Peter Horne, as well.
The fact that Foley did not announce his retirement when Kubota listed its end-of-season departures last month, shows the "Ice Man" believes he has some good rugby left in him yet. But what is perhaps a more important question is whether that belief is shared by Horne and the bean-counters RA, who might need to come to the party with the extra cash that gets Foley one last hurrah in Sydney.
There have been reports of a one-year deal, which may lead to a coaching role a season later, while the impact Foley could have on young No. 10s Max Burey and Joey Fowler is undeniable; the veteran playmaker's 76 Test caps and two World Cup appearances speak for themselves.
But the Waratahs No. 10 jersey also comes tinged with a not-so-subtle warning. Since Foley first departed Sydney at the end of 2019, first Will Harrison, Ben Donaldson and Tane Edmed, and then later Lawson Creighton, Jack Bowen and Jack Debreczeni, have all tried and failed to make the jersey their own; by the time a ball is kicked in Super Rugby next year, Creighton, Bowen and Debreczeni may have joined the others in exiting the franchise.
And that presents the question as to whether the issue has been with the players themselves, or instead the system around them. The Waratahs have had three different coaches since Foley's departure, and none of Rob Penney, Darren Coleman and now Dan McKellar have been able to build any sense of stability at fly-half across that period.
On one hand, bringing Foley in on a one-and-done deal might only exacerbate that very issue. On the other, having a steady, experienced hand who won't stifle a backline featuring Max Jorgensen, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and, next year, NRL star Angus Crichton, could be just what the 2027 Waratahs need.
From there, in a World Cup year, when the Wallabies' own No. 10 situation remains muddied, anything is possible.
So on a weekend when it's hard to make a case for an Australian win in either Wellington or Hamilton being exactly that -- possible -- a more enticing proposition might be a 36-year-old playmaker offering an unlikely window to the future.