In the damp of Allianz Stadium in Sydney, the Waratahs' frustrating season was officially put to bed in a 14-21 loss to the Brumbies as they let their campaign slip from their grasp.
The tale of the tape will show a season of what could have been. Losses to the Reds in Round 4, Blues in Round 5, Western Force in Round 12, and the Highlanders in Round 13 were exercises in frustration, all four games the Waratahs were in position to win before costly errors in crucial moments proved decisive.
The same will be said about Friday night's loss with 15,550 people witnessing the Waratahs earn their way into multiple try scoring positions only to squander their opportunities with loose carries, and poor execution within the five-metre red zone.
With eight entries into the Brumbies' 22m by halftime, the Waratahs had failed to capitalise on a single occasion, held up over the line multiple times or losing the ball in the tackle. It was the opposite for the Brumbies who walked away with points twice from four entries in the first 40 minutes. It was clear what the Waratahs' issues were and had been all year with the bogey on their backs unable to be shaken even with their season on the line.
Jack Bowen opened the night with a heroic effort to stop a certain Kadin Prichard try in the first minutes, chasing the centre down and pinning him on his back over the line, before turning the Brumbies back around with an excellent kicking game and the ability to spread the ball wide to the edges where Harry Potter and Sid Harvey looked so threatening.
Parking themselves inside the Brumbies half for over 10 minutes with several try scoring opportunities going begging -- held up over the line multiple times or spilling the ball -- a half break from Max Jorgensen with an incredible offload to Tristan Reilly looked to have sliced the Brumbies clean open until Harvey spilled the ball in the last pass with a clear tryline in front. It was the story of their night, and their season.
"Firstly, really proud of our effort, but we didn't convert opportunities in the A zone," Waratahs coach Dan McKellar said post match. "We've spoken about it and I think if you look at the last two games, last week we sat at halftime and we converted six from seven, I think, and were up by 30 points. This week we were none from seven, and at one stage none from 10.
"You got to give credit to the opposition, the Brumbies defended their goal line well. The frustrating thing was we carried a little bit high at times in that area, which allowed them to hold us up.
"You're knocking on the door, knocking on the door, and they continued to turn us away, and then all of a sudden it's 14-nil.
"I thought we created a lot of opportunities, made line breaks, it was just last pass. It's sort of been the story of the season, which is a little bit frustrating.
"In saying that, I think in the past that really would have deflated this group and gone away from plan and system. That certainly wasn't the case, so there's some growth there, but it's just tough to come second off the back of the effort that we put in."
The Waratahs dominated close to every stats group. Carries, line breaks, territory and possession, almost triple post contact metres and fewer penalties conceded -- despite a yellow card to Charlie Gamble and four back-to-back penalties that piggy backed the Brumbies downfield for their opening try. But they also almost doubled turnovers lost and earned less than half the number of turnovers.
The issue of a lack of go forward from their tight five from weeks prior had clearly been rectified against the Fijian Drua and again on Friday with Matt Philip (18), Angus Scott-Young (18), Clem Halaholo (15), and Miles Amatosero (13) beaten by only Rob Vaetini (20) for carries, while Scott-Young finished within the top five for metres carried -- beaten only by backline speedsters Corey Toole, Harry Potter and Max Jorgensen.
Prop Daniel Botha was a standout with three carries for 30 metres, while he held his own and even gave some back against Wallabies veteran James Slipper at the scrum. An incredible midfield break in the 27th minute deserved to be converted into points with the 24-year-old charging through a gap before sending a pass to Amotesaro who showed a clean pair of hands to collect the ball and keep the play going. Taken down by the scurrying defence, it was offloaded to Teddy Wilson, who in turn sent it to Bowen, but just seven metres out couldn't hold on in the tackle. Yet another redzone entry squandered.
Plenty of fingers have been pointed at Dan McKellar and his coaching group -- particularly attack coach Mike Catt -- for what's gone wrong through the season, but captain Matt Philip was quick to defend his coach, accepting it's the players that should wear the blame for where their season had ended up.
"I've backed the coaching all year," Philip said. "I think Dan's doing a great job in trying to turn this organisation around and as a captain and a player, I'm fully behind him.
"I don't know how many times we can really speak about that A zone area, we spend a lot of time on it, so it's definitely a player responsibility and something we've got to look to moving forward and work out how to be better there.
"It's a little bit of the story of the season. I thought we pressured their set piece well. We won a lot of the physical battle, and we created a lot of opportunities to get into their A-zone. But it's almost like we need a little bit more care around something, four hold-ups, a lot of knock-ons down there.
"Like, what do you say, zero from 10 opportunities, that close in, that's just not good enough, especially against a team like the Brumbies, so it's a hard area to coach in the fact that, if someone drops a ball, they know they've done something wrong. I can't really give feedback on their field going, 'don't drop that', you know that they know not to drop that.
"It's a bit of a grey area for myself at the moment of trying to turn that part of the game around, it's happened in a few games, the Auckland Blues game comes to mind here where we cooked about four or five opportunities early in the first half, just that last pass there, so a little bit of the story of the season, I guess."
Trailing 21-0 halfway through the second, the Waratahs finally broke through for their opening try after camping themselves on the Brumbies line once more. Battering away at the line and earning multiple penalties it was Isaac Kailea who finally crashed over.
Minutes later they'd be over once more with Jorgensen on the end of a pinpoint cutout pass from Philip to put him on the outside of Tom Wright, shake off the defender and race away for the corner. With 10 minutes left to play it was certainly game on and there remained a flicker of hope they could keep their playoff hopes alive.
Those hopes quickly faded as they failed once more to convert their possession and territory into points. Turned away again from the line and then pushed back into their own half in the final minutes, the Tahs seemed to forget you need ball in hand to score points, kicking the ball away and then losing it once more at the halfway line. As the hooter blared the Brumbies sent it to touch and with it ended the Waratahs' season.
Three straight years the Waratahs have failed to reach the playoffs, twice under McKellar, with the side facing down the potential of finishing the season with eight losses if they fail to overcome the Force in Perth next week. On paper it looks like little has changed over two seasons, but McKellar isn't buying into it.
"I think we've made huge progress," McKellar defended his team. "A lot of that the public can't see. It's within the four walls of the building. You've got to understand when we took over this group, it was a group that had come last and were really lacking in a lot of key areas to perform consistently at this level.
"We've made a lot of change and we're on the right track, but we're far from where we need to be, so, that's progress is not always through results, but I understand that we need to get results."
With one year left on his contract and pressure building, McKellar will be hoping Rugby Australia also sees it that way.