What a difference 14 months makes.
Left out in the cold by Eddie Jones just over a year ago, star Wallabies trio Len Ikitau, Noah Lolesio and Tom Wright have risen above in 2024, reigniting a stuttering Wallabies' backline, and leaving many fans scratching their heads wondering why there was no place for them at last year's diabolical World Cup campaign.
It's unlikely we'll ever get an answer from Eddie on what he didn't see in the backline stars, but in the opening two weeks of the Autumn Nations Series they've shown exactly why they can't be dropped again.
In the Wallabies' win over England it was dubbed the 'Flikitau' after Ikitau's incredible flick pass to Max Jorgensen to set up the match winner after the siren. The next week it was 'Stepitau' after he bamboozled Wales fullback Cameron Winnett with his dummy to no one and some serious footwork that saw him jut in, then out of Winnett's reach to crash over the whitewash and give a celebratory point at the camera. A pointed dig at a former coach? Maybe that's a bit too farfetched, but a pointed celebration all the same to any doubters of Ikitau and his team.
Wright, too, made sure not to miss the camera, blowing kisses to his fans and doubters alike after he crashed over for his opening try of the night against Wales. A night where he continued his incredible form, not just from the series opener, but through the year as a whole.
There's little doubt he's showcasing his best form ever in the Wallabies gold, slicing through gaps, bumping off defenders with ease and darting downfield with wicked pace as witnessed in his second try off the back of an intercept inside the Wallabies half, and again in his third when he came up on Tate McDermott's outside to dart across the line to close out the match.
His incredible stats speak for themselves. Three linebreaks, with 12 carries, beating five defenders, all while racking up a huge 243 metres at Cardiff. That's the most by any player against a Tier 1 nation since 2018 and rates him fifth all-time since Opta run metre stats began in 2010.
Watching on from Canberra the trio's ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham hasn't been surprised by his stars' turn of form and has simply been enjoying watching their impressive performances so far on tour.
"Very good to watch. The whole team is certainly playing with confidence, but yeah, every time Wrighty touches the ball it's pretty exciting, isn't it, to see what's going to happen," Larkham told ESPN.
"Obviously we saw it on the weekend, he's got a tonne of pace, but he's also very powerful through contact, bumping off defenders multiple times on the weekend. He sees the space really well, he's an excellent communicator, he's got a really good connection.
"Len's been one that's sort of started for us regularly. He's sort of the first picked every week and it's good to see him having some continuity within the Wallaby program now from the disappointment of last year and now being in the team every week.
"Lenny is just really good on his feet. He's got really good spatial awareness. He's very powerful through contact, so he carries the ball with a lot of confidence. We saw the flick in the first game and then the dummy to no one and a bit of footwork and scored the try in the second game.
"He's someone that is very consistent with his performances, very consistent with his training and given a little bit of space, which we've sort of seen over the last couple of games, getting a little bit of space, I think he's one of the best centres in the world."
From outcast to an outright Wallabies star, Larkham has pinned Wright as one of the world's best fullbacks.
"I kind of see him there [world's best fullback] at the moment. These last couple of performances and his performances through Super Rugby, he played every minute of every game for us this year in Super Rugby, he was a standout player in just about every game, and then he's carried that into the Test arena."
The most underrated of the trio and perhaps the most improved, though, has been Lolesio. Brought in and out of the Wallabies set up since his debut under Dave Rennie four years ago, the 24-year-old has been a magnet for criticism with any mistake under the microscope for fans to pick apart.
It's clear now though, given real backing from his coaches, and filled with confidence, the fly-half has grown in his role and has started to find the freedom to play behind a strong forward pack and a well-structured backline.
As a distributor, there's no pressure on Lolesio to make the flashy plays, instead his role is simple, direct his outside backs and give them fast, clean ball to beat the defenders on the outside. Simple, but effective and so far proving game changing for the Wallabies.
Perhaps missing out on the World Cup was the best thing for Lolesio and his Brumbies teammates, with the trio entering Super Rugby pre-season with a newfound hunger, while the fly-half's stint in France's Top 14 re-energised the playmaker.
"Definitely yeah, he got a lot of confidence going from going over to France," Larkham told ESPN. "He came back really energised, really keen to get into the season and then he was very proactive, just with his training and with his searching for feedback around his games early in the season and we had a plan to try and get him as much time as possible.
"Just on the back of all of that, bringing some confidence, bringing good preparation into the season, I think that's set him up really well for the Test season and I think just the more games you can play, particularly in that game controller area, the better you're going to get and him going over to France it's a really good option to improve as a rugby player. If you can play high level rugby throughout the year, you're going to improve and improve, and we certainly saw that.
"He's now getting an opportunity to put a few games together and that confidence is building and certainly the execution, the accuracy of his game is improving game by game because of the opportunities now that he's getting on a more regular basis."
Two from two and with two more to come dreams of a historic Grand Slam forty years in the making are starting to build, but the biggest test is yet to come. Scotland and Ireland remain, and neither side will let small errors slide, but with the unwanted trio running hot anything could happen to close out their incredible run.
