The first rule of Rugby World Cup is to kick your goals. The second rule of Rugby World Cup is to kick your goals. The third rule of ... well, you get the picture.
The Wallabies have two weeks to sort out that key issue before they open their 2023 campaign against Georgia back at the Stade de France in Paris, after they were trounced 41-17 by the tournament hosts on Sunday afternoon in the final warmup game before the 10th edition of game's global showpiece.
There were few surprises in Paris as France rounded out their preparations for a home World Cup in grand style, and Australia slumped even further into the red as pre-departure concerns about the make-up of their squad bubbled back to the surface once more.
While multiple wins under a new coach were always going to prove a lofty target given the quality of their pre-World Cup opposition, Australia would have dearly loved at least one victory to instill some measure of confidence. But not even the most positive of thinking will mask the fact that they are 0-5 in Eddie Jones' second coming and, as Fiji's impressive win over England Twickenham confirmed, face a real challenge just to get out of Pool C.
"Sometimes in games like this -- the scoreboard is always important don't get me wrong -- but we've got a greater aim than this game," Jones told reporters after the match. "And we enjoyed being part of the party tonight, but in terms of what we want to do for the World Cup and particularly our first game, we probably did a lot of good things, but we've got to get better at converting territory into points.
"And at the same time when they get into our territory, stopping them scoring points, which is the most obvious thing; but we had 63% of the territory in the first half and we were behind 16-5 at halftime, so a good team that doesn't happen to. And we're not a bad team, but we're not a good team yet and it's just that we're going through the process of being a good team.
"So we've just got to keep believing, keep working hard and it will come. And it might be in two weeks against Georgia, and it might be in three weeks against Fiji, and it might be four weeks against Wales, it might be five weeks against Portugal, we don't know when it's going to come."
There is no sugarcoating Australia's goal kicking woes, which left the Wallabies playing catch-up footy in Paris. While the final scoreboard read 41-17, Australia could have given the second-half a far greater shake had fly-half Carter Gordon not left eight points out on the field in the first stanza.
Instead of going to the break within one score of their hosts, the Wallabies trailed 16-5, a deficit that always looked beyond their comeback abilities despite a bright start to the second half - one which they were again unable to capitalise on.
While Gordon was 0-3 from the kicking tee in the first half, his French counterpart Thomas Ramos was a perfect 4/4 in front of goal, that scoreboard pressure telling as the hosts then rebuffed the Wallabies' early endeavour and then struck when winger Suliasi Vunivalu was yellow carded.
That however was the only blemish on Vunivalu's afternoon, with the Wallabies winger at last repaying the faith of those who have been so patient with him on his rugby journey. Jones is at the top of that list, and the former Melbourne Storm flyer's performance will be one of the few positives the 63-year-old coach takes from the match.
Where Vunivalu had looked all at sea in his previous Test start in Pretoria earlier this year, on Sunday afternoon he put himself in the right places at the right times, created defensive headaches for his miss-matched opposite Gabin Villiere and then showed his prowess in the air, which brought about a late consolation try for Australia.
He will not keep Marika Koroibete out of the starting side to face Georgia, but after three years of injury troubles and mixed Super Rugby form, Vunivalu at last looked like a Test winger worth persisting with.
Earlier, France had flexed their World Cup muscle and affirmed their standing as one of the tournament favourites, mixing the power play of their big pack and centre Jonathan Danty, with the guile and skill of scrum-half and skipper Antoine Dupont.
It was Danty who scored the first try of the match when he ran a crash ball straight at Gordon and winger Mark Nawaqanitawase, the Wallabies duo unable to repel the Frenchman's route-one carry.
Australia were able to respond through Nawaqanitwase who finished a beautiful sequence of passing in the left-hand corner, but the backline shift perhaps only masked another of the Wallabies' issues, which then later revealed itself in full later in the second half.
What has happened to the Wallabies' maul? A strength under Michael Cheika and then even Dave Rennie, marshalled by David Pocock and then Folau Fainga'a respectively, Australia's lineout drive is making next to no yardage and sucking in few additional defenders.
Given they have already had two months to hone the set-piece drive, it's hard to see what shifts the Wallabies can unlock to get it going forward at the World Cup and will otherwise need to uncover other methods to get opposition defences backpedaling from the lineout.
That facet of the set-piece, too, was poor in Paris, despite what Jones said post match. Hooker Dave Porecki had a number of throws pinched, including one critical miss deep inside the French half when the Wallabies were trying to get themselves back into the contest early in the second stanza.
Once that pressure had been relieved, Dupont then went about weaving his magic. The 2021 World Rugby Player of the Year seized his moment with a quick tap, catching the Australian defence on the hop before he then offloaded to fly-half Matthieu Jalibert. When the Wallabies counter-ruck went awry at the ensuing tackle, and Vunivalu was binned, perhaps harshly, France had wrestled the momentum and Ramos, fresh off an earlier miss, split the uprights to make it 19-5.
Then it was time for Dupont's pièces de resistance, the scrum-half producing a sublime cross kick to set Villiere off on a run down the left touchline, before the skipper repeated the dose to the opposite touchline, after surging runs from Danty and his centre partner Gael Fikou, to hand winger Damian Penaud the first of his two tries.
Dupont has long been touted as this World Cup's superstar and le petit general certainly lived up to that billing on Sunday afternoon.
While the Wallabies were by that stage beaten, they did keep attacking their hosts and were rewarded with a try to Fraser McReight beneath the uprights after a concentrated short-side raid from Tate McDermott and Angus Bell, for which Nawaqanitawase then provided the necessary thrust in midfield.
But it was only a brief moment of respite as first Villiere slid his way into the corner and then a piece of Penaud magic and a woeful Wallabies defensive read further inflated the hosts' lead.
With Vunivalu's late aerial act, the Wallabies only trailed France four tries to three, but where the hosts nailed 21 points from the kicking tee, Australia could manage only the two - and that was from the conversion right in front of the uprights.
It's true that Gordon is not missing by much, but the two penalties he failed to slot in the first half at Stade de France were undeniably kickable. After he struck the post with a vital penalty in Bledisloe II, his efforts in the first half in Paris have only heightened fears Jones has made a massive error by not bringing Quade Cooper to the World Cup.
Pool C may be free of genuine World Cup giants, but the Wallabies are going to need every point possible to get round first Fiji and then Wales, particularly given how the Pacific Islanders showcased their attacking prowess at Twickenham 24 hours earlier.
"Yeah, nah, 100%, but all we can do is work with the young kid," Jones said when asked about Gordon's goal kicking. "We've got young kids in this team and we're going to work with them, we're backing them, and he'll get better -- he'll get better."
Australia will take heart from the fact their scrum not only held its own against the vaunted French pack, but also won two penalties; again, it was unfortunate that Gordon could not turn the second of those into three points late in the first half.
When you compare that with the game's closing act, a 50-metre bomb from replacement Melvyn Jaminet that sailed between the uprights, the gulf between these two teams stands out like the Eiffel Tower does above Paris.
France, despite the biggest ever tournament opener against the All Blacks, have the personnel, set-piece, physicality, game management and, as the first rule of World Cup rugby states, the goal kicker[s] to go deep into their home tournament.
The Wallabies, on the other hand, are riddled by inconsistencies and lack a goal kicker that can build scoreboard pressure that can keep them in the contest just when it is starting to slip away.
With their on-field preparations now wrapped up, Australia can only find answers on the training paddock. And that is where Gordon must continue working while ever the sun sits in the Saint Etienne sky - a 20% return from the kicking tee is not good enough to win a game of suburban rugby, let alone a crunch Test at the Rugby World Cup.