SYDNEY -- Maybe Eddie Jones can make Australian rugby great again?
Whether it was the presence of the returned Wallabies coach, the spectacular Sydney evening that brought a healthy crowd of 25,076, the addition of some trial laws designed to speed up the game, or a combination of all of the above, the Waratahs and Brumbies turned on a gripping battle for NSW's first match back at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
In the end it was the Brumbies who prevailed 31-25 after an enthralling second half, one that showed the Waratahs may well have been overhyped in the preseason and that the ACT outfit will be just as hard to beat under Stephen Larkham as they were Dan McKellar.
But there were few bigger talking points or brighter stars than two of the youngest players on the field, wingers Corey Toole, 22, and Max Jorgensen, 18, who sparkled under the Moore Park lights on their Super Rugby debuts.
"Everyone's seen it, he'll go onwards and upwards," Waratahs coach Darren Coleman said of Jorgensen, who finished with two tries, four clean breaks and three tackle busts.
"I'm disappointed with the loss more so at the moment, but I'm happy for Max, we always knew he was going to handle it. And a few things went his way today and he got over the line, so it was awesome, and he'll have a good career."
The Brumbies made it 10 straight wins over their neighbours from back up the Hume Highway, the road victory made even sweeter by the fact it spoiled their great rivals' homecoming to the rebuilt Allianz Stadium.
There were plenty of handling errors and the ever-present whistle of referee Nic Berry, particularly at scrum time, in a first half that was more stop-start than free-flowing rugby, but it did at least provide the first glimpses of the 18-year-old Jorgensen.
After the Brumbies had opened the scoring through a try to Ryan Lonergan, following a typically fleet-footed run from Tom Wright, Jorgensen's moment arrived.
With just the second touch of his Super Rugby career, Jorgensen ran onto an offload from Angus Bell, slipped his way between Allan Alaalatoa and Rob Valetini, and then fended off the covering Lonergan to score right beneath the black dot.
Arguably the most hyped Sydney schoolboy since Kurtley Beale, Jorgensen's opening act was as good as any the man who attended the same rugby nursery, St Joseph's College, produced in his debut season way back in 2007.
Unfortunately for the Waratahs, they continued to be let down by their handling as they pushed passes under pressure; though Jorgensen showed many of his teammates how easily it could be done with a breathtaking bit of skill that saw him catch and flick pass in the same movement to avoid going into touch.
But it was also a half when Jorgensen learned a tough lesson.
Following a wonderful left-side attack from the Brumbies, that finished with Toole cutting back infield, the visitors were awarded a penalty next to the sticks. In a brilliant heads-up play, Lonergan spotted an unmarked Andy Muirhead out by the right touchline, and as the Waratahs prepared for the scrum-half to line up a shot at goal he instead kicked the ball across to his winger, who survived Jorgensen's desperate lunge to run round and score.
Jorgensen had drifted in off his wing after the penalty was given, leaving Muirhead wide open, a mistake the rookie Waratahs winger is unlikely to ever make ever again.
The Brumbies went to halftime up 15-10 to the good, and looked to have exploded out of the blocks when Toole flashed down the left touchline having busted through the tackles of Mark Nawaqanitawase and Izaia Perese, before flicking a perfect pass back inside to Valetini.
But TMO James Leckie determined that part of Toole's boot had grazed the touchline and made the decision to overturn the try in conjunction with Berry, despite a lack of compelling evidence that part of the winger's foot had indeed flicked the whitewash.
Toole, a former Australia Sevens representative, began to impose himself on the match thereafter. With blistering speed and acceleration, the type of which is so important on the World Series circuit, Toole found himself on the outside of the Waratahs defence over and over again.
Two Lonergan penalties extended the Brumbies' lead to 21-10 early in the second half, before Jorgensen was again back in the action.
After finally getting some field position and continuity, the Waratahs worked their way through the middle of the Brumbies defence, before the ball was shifted wide to Perese, who cut back inside and threw a superb pass to hit Jorgensen on the chest, and from there the winger dived into the corner.
With the game beginning to open up, and fatigue becoming a factor, Toole seemed destined to get another chance. And so it proved as Muirhead skipped on the outside of Lalakai Foketi following a typically surging run from Valetini, offloaded to his fellow winger who skipped down the touchline and stepped back inside to score.
Just as it looked like the Brumbies might be about to kick clear, the Waratahs found some spark off the bench through Langi Gleeson, the big back-rower finding an offload through contact to put Lalakai Foketi away, the centre turning Wright inside and out before he put skipper Jake Gordon on a run to the corner for the Waratahs' five-pointer.
At that point, the game, and the 25,000-strong crowd, were alive.
But the Waratahs once again became their own worst enemy as they coughed up more ball and gave away the simple penalties which Noah Lolesio gladly slotted from in front to take the Brumbies back out to a comfortable lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Despite the moments of brilliance from Jorgensen and other brief periods of Waratahs enterprise, the visitors were thoroughly deserving of their 31-25 victory; their ferocity at the breakdown typified by a late James Slipper steal than snuffed out a Waratahs' encroachment on the ACT half.
"I thought our preparation was good coming into the game, we've worked really hard through the pre-Christmas, post-Christmas blocks, I'd say that we made too many mistakes through training this week but we managed to get on with the next job pretty well and that's what happened tonight," Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said.
"But it wasn't a perfect game for either team; both teams found a way to get onto the next job and every time we got out to a lead they pegged it back. And it was quite intense at the end there. I think they looked quite dangerous, we were sort of holding on at the end of the game, so it was tight there for a bit for us.
"But it was certainly a very entertaining game, it was one that the people who turned up today, and it was an amazing atmosphere, they would have got their money's worth and certainly would have enjoyed the finish to that game."
While Jorgensen won't forget his debut anytime soon, nor Toole for that matter, the Waratahs have plenty of work to do if they are to live up to the top-four billing for which Coleman and many others have them pegged.
Wallabies coach Jones, who was flashed up on the big screen alongside Brett Hodgson -- the man whom he had brought into his England setup as defensive coach before his sacking -- will have gone home happy after watching the performances of Valetini, lock Nick Frost and centre Len Ikitau.
Jones, along Coleman, will be less thrilled by the sight of NSW and Wallabies prop Angus Bell, who departed the field midway through the first half with what looks to be a reoccurrence of the foot injury that kept him out of the second half of 2022.