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Advance Australia Fair - Source: Photosport
Someone wise once said "One swallow doesn't make a summer".
In that case, one last-gasp win against the Springboks (also) shouldn't make the Wallabies a great rugby team again. But what it has done is completely change everything about this Saturday's upcoming Sydney Test.
Suddenly the Aussies have renewed confidence and suddenly they have new-found belief.
From the previously daunting prospect of facing a record 10th straight defeat to the All Blacks, Deans' mob will now be viewing us as an applecart waiting to be upset.
Do not at all underestimate what yesterday morning's victory in Bloemfontein has meant for their side.
If a 47-year hex on the high veldt can be so dramatically broken, then beating the unbeatable All Blacks just became infinitely more achievable too.
With history on their side, (i.e. Sydney's never been our happiest hunting ground), and 80,000-odd patriots there to roar them on, these young Wallabies will now approach this game believing that a win over us totally re-ignites their (once-faltering) World Cup campaign.
In 80 minutes, they have the potential to re-write the headlines from "Disaster Deans" to "Rescue-act Robbie".
One win and our current aura of invincibility all but disappears, one win and they'll head to Hong Kong confident of squaring this four-match series.
Plus they're playing an All Blacks side, vulnerable without champion first-five-eighth Daniel Carter, featuring newbie Aaron Cruden - a young man charged with steering the ship in easily the biggest game of his career to date.
You can almost feel the pressure being ratcheted up a few notches. All the responsibility of directing a champion team just six Tests away from equalling the world mark of consecutive wins, a team defending a current nine-nil record vs Australia, a team that's swept all before them this season, is resting on the shoulders of a first-five making his debut start at this level.
In Melbourne we won comfortably enough, although it was against 14 men for the whole second half. In Christchurch with 15-on-15 we won again, but only narrowly by 20-10.
Australia will be all too aware of the massive psychological significance, for both sides, now attached to Saturday's outcome.
Triumph for the Wallabies rating nothing less than a landmark moment under Robbie Deans. Defeat for the All Blacks a devastating setback, especially given the progress made and achievements gained since last year's three-nil drubbing by the Springboks. Victory for Australia really would change everything - yet for New Zealand, victory only confirms what we already know.
Far from being a match we were expected to win, Saturday's now become a Test we simply can't afford to lose.
