What they witnessed would have shaken them rigid because it had never been seen before: a Welshman, born and bred in Cardiff, tearing up the All Blacks for England. In doing so, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 'Manny' to his mates, provided damning evidence that Wales have lost rather more than too many matches.
The number had risen to nine within a few hours of the Red Rose convert giving New Zealand both barrels, long enough for those hitherto unaware of his explosive ability to ask how it came to this; that a boy introduced to the game at Corpus Christi School in Cardiff in tandem with one of the capital's junior clubs, Rumney RFC, felt more at home with England.
That he happens to be a specialist outside centre, a position where Wales have suffered from a chronic shortage of contenders in the years since Jonathan 'Fox' Davies at his peak, makes 'Manny's' exit all the more galling.
That would still be so had Wales maintained a lengthy winning streak in Melbourne yesterday instead of extending their losing one beyond another overgrown milestone. Nine in a row, one more than under Warren Gatland in 2012-13, adds up to the longest for 21 years, since Steve Hansen reached double figures from which he recovered to win successive World Cups.
Fiji are next up for Wales in November followed by two more home matches against the Wallabies and Springboks, then a continental start to the Six Nations, France in Paris, Italy in Rome. Despite Fiji displacing them in the world's top ten, Wales will be expected to beat them at home but then they said that of Italy at the end of the Six Nations and look what happened.
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