The inevitable reality check has dawned sooner than many expected for Scott Robertson's All Blacks. How they respond this weekend could define their season.
Robertson rose to the national throne following seven successive Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders. Such unrivalled success banked a swathe of supporters but in the wake of last week's shock home defeat to the Pumas at the All Blacks' Wellington graveyard, that goodwill is in danger of dissolving overnight.
New Zealand rugby fans are a relentless, demanding bunch with short memories.
Four Tests into Robertson's reign and he is rapidly discovering the Test scene is a totally different beast to Super.
After a host of post World Cup departures and while attempting to integrate a new management team, the start of Robertson's tenure always presented potholes to navigate.
With that in mind, the All Blacks were afforded the benefit of the doubt, some rare breathing room, after two shaky home escapes against Steve Borthwick's resurgent England side last month.
Losing at home to the Pumas, though, brings the pressures and expectations of the white hot All Blacks throne into full view.
It is not in the slightest bit dramatic to state Robertson's All Blacks enter must win territory. Lose this weekend at fortress Eden Park, where the All Blacks are unbeaten for 30 years, in their last 51 matches, and the walls will close in.
With a two-Test tour of South Africa to follow in the coming weeks, and with the world champions in ominous form, seemingly improved from last year's World Cup triumph, the All Blacks must immediately amend their flaws.
It only gets tougher from there, too, with Europe's leading rugby nations, England, France and Ireland, lying in wait on the All Blacks' brutal northern tour.
Growing pains, teething issues, were expected to a degree from this new group. The worry for the All Blacks, though, is their regression in several areas from the three-Test July campaign to their opening Rugby Championship flop.
Robertson appears to be paying the price for conservative selections at halfback, where he recalled veteran TJ Perenara over promoting youth, and in the unbalanced loose forwards where contrast is not evident.
To this point, expectations for Robertson to deliver innovation and creativity has certainly not materialised.
The All Blacks forward pack struggled to impose their presence on England - and this theme continued with the Pumas dominating the breakdown to smother and slow the contest to their liking last weekend.
Without a front-foot platform questions persist over whether faith should be retained in Damian McKenzie to drive the All Blacks from first-receiver or if Beauden Barrett should be reinstated with Will Jordan completing his return from shoulder surgery last week.
From the deep kickoffs that pinned the All Blacks in the Wellington corners and pressured their poor exits to their breakdown, the lack of ball carrying punch, hesitant attack and fragile transition defence that conceded the most points in history against the Pumas, Robertson has no shortage of improvements to ensure his men deliver a decisive response this weekend.
To achieve that, the All Blacks coaches and players have been challenged to look in the mirror.
"It starts with the coaches," All Blacks assistant Scott Hansen said this week. "When you look at performances like that with the synergy, the game itself, the performance wasn't what you expect. You look at yourself as a coach and how did I help prepare the individual and set the team up. We've had those conversations as coaches and then we move into what does that look like for the player.
"This is a performance we need to correct around our intent and basically us as a team making our stamp on the game."
Traditionally the All Blacks bounce back from defeats.
In 2020, following their first loss to the Pumas, Ian Foster's All Blacks responded with a 38-0 victory over the same side.
Two years later, after the Pumas celebrated their maiden win on New Zealand soil, the All Blacks retaliated with an emphatic 50-point win in Hamilton the following week.
The onus now falls on Robertson's men to prove they can learn, adapt and channel the hurt to rectify the result in seven days.
But as Will Jordan notes, nothing is guaranteed at this level.
"After a loss there's always going to be a bit of edge brought in. That's human nature around there being a bit of tension in the room. We prepared well last week. It wasn't a case of underestimating the Pumas. Once you lose there's always a huge amount of motivation to go and right that," Jordan explains.
"The nature of the Rugby Championship and playing back-to-back Tests against teams you do get a chance to learn some things and make adjustments. That's what we've done well in previous years going back to 2020 and 2022.
"It's important we do that this week but it's important that we don't think because we've done it in the past that it's going to happen again and we're going to roll them at Eden Park this week. It's a new week and a blank slate so we've got to get the job done."
Robertson's All Blacks were going to lose at some stage.
Few envisioned such a litmus test this early, though.