In the end, Joe Schmidt had no choice but to turn back time.
The Wallabies coach on Friday afternoon finally delivered the 36-man squad that will face the British and Irish Lions, with James O'Connor earning a Test recall for the first time since 2022.
And the Kiwi had no option but to hand 35-year-old O'Connor a second crack at the Lions, after the playmaker started the final Test in Sydney in the Wallabies No. 10 jersey 12 years ago.
"I feel like I've sort of been building to this for quite a while, even my role in Super Rugby and sort of tailoring it for a possible way to be able to play in the Lion series," O'Connor said after learning of his selection on Friday.
"I had expectations going over there [to Christchurch], but I surpassed them massively and I understand now why the Crusaders have been such a successful club.
"Without giving too much away, it was special, I learned so much and I think I may be able to shed a little bit of light on that in this environment that might help a little bit as well."
Given Noah Lolesio's neck injury, which has ruled the fly-half out of rugby indefinitely, Schmidt had to weigh up the experience of O'Connor or Bernard Foley against one-Test Wallaby Tane Edmed.
Edmed will still get the chance to show his wares for the AUNZ Invitational XV in Adelaide on Saturday, but after he was relegated to the bench at the Waratahs this year it was clear who Schmidt needed to add to his squad to face the Lions.
O'Connor may have been on the bench for much of the year at the Crusaders, but his cameos off it, and 64 Tests worth of experience, made him a no-brainer once Lolesio was ruled out.
The fact O'Connor was still playing Super Rugby, albeit across the ditch, also counted in his favour. And while Schmidt has forged his brief Wallabies tenure with an eye on the future, this was an occasion that begged him to look to its past.
There is plenty of time to invest in Ben Donaldson, Tom Lynagh and even Edmed after the Lions series, but it would have been sheer madness to overlook O'Connor's long history in the gold jersey for the next three weeks.
Donaldson is likely to start in the first Test in Brisbane given he came off the bench as Lolesio's replacement in Newcastle and it may be that Lynagh is the other fly-half among the 23 at Suncorp Stadium.
But Schmidt simply had to give himself some insurance in the toughest position on the paddock; Donaldson and Lynagh's combined 20 Test caps don't even make up a third of O'Connor's international career.
If it was good enough for Andy Farrell to bring in his son, Owen, to the Lions as a means of fly-half insurance, then so to is it for Schmidt.
"I talk to David Havili who I've coached and have a lot of time for his opinion, and he said that James was a real help with the 10s at the Crusaders," Schmidt said about O'Connor on Friday afternoon.
"At the same time, James had played pretty solidly coming on in the back end of the games for the Crusaders."
This is not an admission from the Kiwi that his overall Wallabies planning has been wrong, instead he has shown his adaptability in acting exactly as the situation has called for.
At 35, O'Connor has now been given one of international rugby's rarest opportunities - a second crack at the Lions, a chance he will share with Australia's most capped Wallaby: James Slipper.
O'Connor has long acknowledged he wasn't ready to face the Lions at fly-half as a 23-year-old in 2013, that he had no idea about the intricacies and strategies of No.10 play.
He has also matured off the field since then, embarking on a journey of self-discovery that made him realise the errors of his younger ways.
The fact that he has been able to overcome those misadventures and take responsibility for them have helped present him with the opportunity that is now in front of him.
Whether that's as a starter, a replacement or merely as a senior player in Schmidt's 36-man squad, one that perhaps doesn't even get on the field, it is an opportunity that the 35-year-old deserves.
And one that Schmidt had no other choice but to bestow on him.