After the World Cup, Wales bid farewell to many experienced players and, armed with a new squad, Warren Gatland’s team had a disappointing Six Nations campaign.

They failed to win a game and dropped to 10th on the world rankings, below Australia (ninth). After a 41-13 loss to the Boks in June, Gatland named a squad for the July tour with a huge number of missing stars, who have either retired, are injured or are being rested for this tour.

Names like Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Toby Faletau, George North, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar, Gareth Anscombe and Jac Morgan are not here. One – flying winger Louis Rees-Zammit – has even joined Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs via the NFL International Player pathway.

“That day [in Lyon], everything went right for us. It was one of those days,” Forshaw said.

“We were probably white hot then as a Wales team. Since that game, we’ve probably lost five, six hundred caps. It’s a challenge for our lads to play against the Wallabies.

“It’s a long time since Wales won over here, if my memory serves me right. It’s a different challenge playing against Australian teams in Australia.”

Wales haven’t beaten the Wallabies in Australia since a 19-16 victory at the SCG in 1969.

And with a crisis of confidence in Welsh rugby that isn’t a million miles from the one cloaking Australian rugby, the expectation of the tourists’ breaking the drought has been set at a low level.

But surely Wales can take confidence from the 40-6 win and, with a fast start, re-open some of those still-fresh wounds?

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“A lot’s been said about the Wallabies in the summer [but] they’ll have parked that by now,” Forshaw said.

“I think Joe will be quite smart. They’ll be a different side. They’ll be a different animal. I think they’ll be a lot more structured. They’ll know exactly what they’re going for.

“Joe is a forensic coach and he’s probably not had his fingerprints on the job as long as he would have liked. But I’m sure he’s got enough there to make them very competitive on Saturday night.”

Watch every July International Test Rugby match ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport with All Blacks v England (Saturday 4:30pm AEST), Wallaroos v Fijiana (Saturday 4:55pm AEST), Japan v Maori All Blacks (Saturday 6:50pm AEST), Wallabies v Wales (Saturday 7:00pm AEST), South Africa v Ireland (Sunday 12:55am AEST) and Argentina v France (Sunday 4:50am AEST).