It was headlined as the battle of former State of Origin teammates. Waratahs' Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in his return after eight weeks on the sideline, facing off against his former NSW Origin teammate and latest NRL convert, Zac Lomax of the Western Force.
Instead, both were overshadowed in what turned into a relative bore fest that only came alive in the final minute, as the Western Force starved the Waratahs of possession and slogged their way to a three-point 20-17 victory in front of the 11,000 Waratahs fans at Allianz Stadium on Friday night - their first in Sydney in five years.
Suaalii's night began positively, flying high for the kick-off to nab the ball mid-air and win possession back for the Tahs. But he would rarely be sighted again except for a few restarts and for several hammering defensive hits.
While he was vocal and clearly hungry to rip into his first game since he was sidelined with a hamstring injury two months ago, the Waratahs failed to get their so-called "Ferrari" out of the garage. It's not an unfamiliar position for the team, who have battled to get the most out of their superstar for the last two seasons.
In dire numbers that will hardly impress Waratahs coach Dan McKellar or Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, Suaalii clocked just five touches in his 59-minute return with just three carries.
But it was hardly the fault of the 22-year-old, as the team failed to gain any possession in the second half and was forced to make over 300 tackles through the 80-minutes as the Force dominated almost every aspect of the game - particularly possession and territory.
Asked how the side could get more out of the midfield star McKellar kept his solution simple: "Stop making 300 tackles".
"If you make 300 tackles, like how many did we make last week, 260? No one's touching the ball. And when you've got 32% territory, all you're doing is defending and then trying to get out of your own end.
"We've got squeezed to death and bullied in and around the breakdown.
"I can't flick a switch and be like, Su, here's space, you've got to earn that. And you turn the ball over and you're making that many tackles, and you get what we keep getting.
"It's as simple as that."
The side made just one line break the whole game while they were reduced to just one entry into the Force's 22 in the second half - coming in the 74th minute - which would result in their only points of the second stanza, somehow keeping them within striking distance and producing the most enthralling moment of the game.
A knock on at the base of the ruck from Teddy Wilson on the fulltime siren as the Waratahs attempted a last-minute surge, though, was emblematic of everything that had gone wrong for the team in sky blue.
"Just disappointed," McKellar said of the match. "We got squeezed to death. Couldn't get out of our end. Physically dominated in and around the ruck. There was plenty of effort, but I thought parts of the night we got we got beaten at our own game.
"They squeezed us, you know, they squeezed us.
"In the second half they won the aerial battle. First half, we defended a lot, did well to get back to 10-3, they kick off and we're just so loose at the breakdown and we turn it over and gift them an opportunity off the back of losing a couple of collisions.
"It's a really simple game if you want to do the simple thing as well. But we're slow into the breakdown, they counter ruck, turnover, [Dylan] Pietsch eventually scores.
"Second half, yeah, turned over ball, turned over ball at set piece again, and bullied in and around the ruck. That's both attack and defence and they just came here with a pretty bland plan and it worked. "Just disappointing that we didn't start to fire a punch until we were down by 10 points."
Meanwhile, Lomax enjoyed a more successful night in his return to Sydney and just his third Super Rugby match -- despite also only getting rare glimpses of the ball -- carrying for 50 metres and competing well in the air against Lawson Creighton and Max Jorgensen.
The battle between the pair - although one on the wing, the other in the centres - failed to ignite with just the one interaction between them coming in the opening minutes of the game seeing Suaalii get Lomax to the ground inside the Waratahs 22, creating the error with Andrew Kellaway stripping the ball from Lomax's grasp and earning the knock-on penalty.
But his busy work didn't go unnoticed by his coach, Simon Cron, who is keen to continue building the star code-hopper into a Super Rugby star.
"I think for Zac, like he's a bundle of energy and because he just wants to get involved the whole time, he'll sometimes go running looking for it on the other side of the field, so he's just learning parts of the game," Cron said post-match.
"You can see, you know, he did some great stuff in the air tonight, he had a really great carry through the middle of the field, so it's just constantly working on the small parts of the game like the breakdown and then positioning for him. "He's like all of us. Anyone who's got an engine and wants to play will go looking everywhere and that's probably him.
"I think what I'll try and do with Zac is just help him to understand when the best time is to go and when the best time is to come back and that's just learning like any player."
While the code-hoppers took the headlines in the lead-in to the game, it was former Waratahs duo Dylan Pietsch and Ben Donaldson who starred through the contest.
Donaldson's season continued to go to another level as he moved his side around the park with confidence as they pushed their way into the Waratahs' red zone constantly, while a midfield break early in the second half - which eventually led to Pietsch's second try -- highlighted the growth in his game, as he continues to look to take the line on and use his speed to his side's advantage.
"I think just like us as a team, take every game as it comes for Dono," Cron said of Donaldson's standout performance. "He's working on his craft the whole time. There's little parts of his game during the week that he's working on, and we're working on with him.
"He's extremely driven. He looks kind of relaxed, but he's an amazingly driven athlete and he wants to keep getting better at the one percenters, and I think that's what the Wallaby coaches will be looking for, they'll be looking for the one percenters that make the difference for that first-five spot."
Backing up their stunning win over the Crusaders two weeks ago, the Force continue to keep their finals hopes alive, with a huge clash against the Brumbies in Canberra to come next week. While the Waratahs have put themselves in a dire situation, collapsing to two straight losses and requiring a perfect run from here to have any hope of breaching the top six.