Once again Australian rugby is desperately looking overseas in a bid to fix up its attacking woes.
Around 2015 Rugby World Cup time, Matt Giteau was brought back to provide solidity and creativity to the Wallabies backline. It worked, with Australia surprising all by making the final.
Two years on, the SOS call is being made to Kurtley Beale, who is constantly named as the frontrunner for the Test No 12 jersey later this year- either for the June domestic internationals or the Rugby Championship.
While Beale has enjoyed a flourishing year with Wasps in England's Aviva Premiership, it doesn't say much about those Australian midfielders who have had ample opportunities during the three months of Super Rugby to convince Test coach Michael Cheika they are the man to revitalise the Wallabies' attack. None have stood out- and so Beale, an often-unpredictable commodity, remains the midfield band-aid.
It is not just resilient midfield attacking options that Australia is short of.
They also lack game-breaking finishers, or anyone who can score tries on a regular basis. Try-scoring among the Australian provinces has dried up.
The 2017 Super Rugby statistics are damning- not just in the win-loss region, but also in how many tries each team has scored, and in the highest try-scorer list.
They also highlight the stupidity of the Super Rugby conference format when the leader of one hasn't been able to win their last four games or score a try in 210 minutes.
To add to the silliness, the Brumbies, suffering their longest try drought in 10 years, head the Australian conference even though victorious in just three matches out of 10.
This is also despite them ranking a lowly 15th in the number of tries this season- 25. While the Hurricanes (63 tries) and Crusaders (62) are well ahead of everyone else this season (averaging respectively 6.3 and 5.6 tries per game), the Australian contingent are way down the bottom.
The Reds, who have played an extra game, are in ninth spot (34 tries at an average of 3.1 per game), followed by the Waratahs (32 at 3.2) in twelfth, then the Brumbies, Force in 17th (21 at 2.1) and the Rebels last with 12 tries at 1.2 per game. Even the Sunwolves have scored more tries (27) than the Brumbies, Force and Rebels.
Fifteen players have scored six tries or more this year. Only two are Australians- Reds winger Eto Nabuli with eight and Brumbies winger Henry Speight on six. In the top 10 list of most metres gained- headed by Chiefs fullback Damian McKenzie with 951, there is just one Australian- Reds outside centre Samu Kerevi with 723.
In the list of numbers of defenders beaten, the Australian teams rank ninth (Reds), 12th (Waratahs), 16th (Force), 17th (Brumbies) and last (Rebels).
The lack of midfield impetus has been a problem at the Brumbies all season, where Speight has probably been the most dangerous of all Australian backline performers when he has been given the ball. The problem is that in so many matches Speight has been under-utilised. He has been an observer rather than a participant in too many games.
There was always going to be problems after centre Matt Toomua and winger Joe Tomane left Canberra, while the unavailability of another centre Christian Lealiifano hasn't yet been adequately covered. And so, the Brumbies' try-scoring average has dropped from 3.5 per game last year to 2.5 this season. Then again, in recent times the Brumbies, once the master of fast ensemble football and a cavalcade of tries especially in the days when their coach Stephen Larkham was the composer at No 10, have become more renowned for their driving maul from the lineout to score tries. That has also been less of a weapon for them this season.
Almost unbelievably, they remain top of their conference, and could easily be Australia's sole representative at finals time. Crazy times indeed.