If the ACT Brumbies fail to make the Super Rugby finals, you might find the ashes of their championship dreams buried at the bottom of an Eden Park graveyard alongside Australian teams of the past 30 years.
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The shellshocked Brumbies are in a dog fight and clinging on to the finals hopes after suffering a devastating loss to the Auckland Blues 40-15 in New Zealand on Friday night.
The result has thrown a spanner into their plans of making the play-offs for a fourth consecutive season, with their hopes now hanging by a thread and reliant on the results of arch rivals the NSW Waratahs.
If the Waratahs beat the Wellington Hurricanes and gain a bonus point on Saturday night, it will give the Brumbies an almighty mountain to climb just to snatch Australia's guaranteed finals spot.
If the Waratahs lose, it sets up an Australian rugby war in the last round of the season with finals as the prize.
There will be more permutations and scenarios to be settled over the coming days, but the Brumbies will nervously watch the Waratahs do battle against the Hurricanes to slot another piece into the puzzle.
The Brumbies play the Western Force in Canberra in the last week of the regular season, while the Waratahs will fly to Auckland to take on the Blues and get a chance to dance on the Brumbies' coffin.
"We want to get to the end of next week and say we've got no excuses," said coach Stephen Larkham.
"There are about 10 things we need to work on. Obviously the Hurricanes game is important for us now, we're in a battle with the Waratahs to get that spot in the finals."
The Blues left the Brumbies stunned with a sublime opening to the round 16 clash, scoring four tries in the opening 21 minutes to scoot to a 28-7 lead.
The first two of those tries came off the back of Brumbies errors in the opening minutes, and they destroyed their hopes of winning.
Scott Fardy and Christian Lealiifano will return to Canberra bloodied and bruised. Fardy has stitches under his chin and in the top of his head after a blood-soaked second half that led to him needing to be helped from the ground.
Lealiifano had stitches about his right eye in the first half, but returned to complete the game.
Winger Joseph Tomane will come into selection contention next week provided his comeback from a knee injury goes to plan in Canberra's club competition on Saturday, while David Pocock (fractured eye socket) is only an unlikely starter.
Larkham lamented the poor start and too many errors, while co-captain Lealiifano said the Brumbies couldn't afford to dwell on the Auckland trainwreck.
"They came out red hot and it was disappointing, we couldn't really steady the momentum," he said. "They punished us for every little mistake we made, we were off in defence and couldn't shut down their threats.
"Your confidence takes a little hit, that was pretty humbling. That's the nature of Super Rugby, teams can be hot and cold and then punish you when you're not looking."
The Blues' razzle-dazzle and high-octane play caught the Brumbies napping on a perfect Auckland night.
The weight of possession told the story, with the Blues getting 64 per cent of the ball during the match and limiting the Brumbies to just 36 per cent.
It was entertaining to watch for anyone not wearing a Brumbies jersey and the only times the visitors looked in the contest was when they turned to their set piece and rolling maul.
Even that wasn't good enough in the end, with Jerome Kaino and Matt Duffie scoring two tries each and the Blues charging to an unexpected win.
The Brumbies' only two tries came off the back of mauls, while the Blues ran from everywhere and looked dangerous every time they had the ball.
There was a brief fightback in the second half but the Brumbies were completely outclassed and outplayed in a gamed they should have been desperate to win.
"We gave them a massive start, we know they're a dangerous side in those circumstances. We fell off too many tackles, we bought back into it for a period but weren't good enough," said Brumbies captain Stephen Moore.
"You need to have a bit of variation, we want to use our maul and play off it a bit. We've got to win [next weekend]."
Even when the Blues were down to 14 men, with Kaino in the sin bin, they outscored the Brumbies by 14 points and never really looked in any danger of losing.
Nigel Ah Wong dropped the kick-off which led to Kaino's first try and then a lineout error opened the door for the Blues to charge over for their second from a masterfully worked move inside the first seven minutes.
There was a brief fightback from the Brumbies, with the rolling maul earning a penalty try and Matt Toomua diving over. But it was futile as the fired-up Blues opened the Brumbies' wounds.
The Blues adopted the controversial disengaging tactic to try to stop the Brumbies' rolling maul and refused to buy into a battle of muscle in the forward pack.
"We were just outplayed, they were just too good. Individually and collectively they were better than us," Larkham said.
"We lacked possession and our we need to address our kicking and our edge defence. Our maul and our scrum were good, but our players in general weren't where they needed to be.
"We'll refocus for next week and make sure we prepare better, do things differently that we need to and get ready for the Force."
AUCKLAND BLUES 40 (Jerome Kaino 2, Matt Duffie 2, James Parsons, Sam Prattley tries; Piers Frances 5 cons) bt ACT BRUMBIES 15 (Penalty try, Matt Toomua tries; Christian Lealiifano con, pen) at Eden Park on Friday night. Referee: Ben O'Keefe.
