Ireland’s 15-6 win at Eden Park on Saturday — courtesy of two penalties goals each from Ronan O’Gara and Jonathan Sexton, who added a dropped goal — ensures the Wallabies are now likely to have to go through the Springboks and All Blacks if they are to reach the Oct. 23 final.

If the Wallabies win a record third World Cup, they will also have to make history of another kind. No team has ever lost a match in the pool stage and gone on to claim the William Webb Ellis trophy in the 24-year history of the tournament.

Australia will first have to beat the US Eagles on Friday and the Russian Bears on Oct. 1 to ensure qualification for the quarterfinals.

“Everyone is stinging to get back out there and play,” Cooper said Sunday. “The good thing about this tournament is that we’re still in it. It’s just going to be a harder path now.”

The Wallabies were expertly held up three times in mauls by the Irish forward to lose the scrum feed, gave away five scrum penalties, and were dominated at the breakdown by the loose forward trio of Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip.

“The first time I carried the ball in too high and the second time I was just trying to stay for too long on my feet instead of hitting the deck,” inside center Pat McCabe said of being held up. “That was two pretty costly errors early on in the game that really hurt our momentum.

“It felt like we just couldn’t get any continuity or momentum during the game. It felt very stop-start and it was tough to get any kind of flow going. They were very effective in the contact area, which slowed us up a fair bit.”

The teams were locked at 6-6 at the break after the Irish rallied in the last 20 minutes of the first half, but flyhalf Cooper said there was no panic.

“A few instructions were given about being more accurate right across the park. The whole team just had to be more accurate,” he said. “Breakdown was a focus and obviously field position. We played down their half a fair bit but we just didn’t capitalize on opportunities.

“It’s a game of momentum and if you’ve got nothing and the other team has all of it, nine times out of 10 you’re going to be on the back foot, which makes it very hard to win the game.”

The loss of flanker David Pocock and hooker Stephen Moore in the hours leading up to the match didn’t help Australia’s cause, coming on top of Digby Ioane’s absence after the winger fractured his thumb in the 32-6 win over Italy last week.

The three players are among the Wallabies’ most influential. Pocock’s withdrawal required the enforced selection of Ben McCalman to make his first test start on the openside flank as there is no backup specialist No. 7 in the squad.

McCalman and fellow backrowers Rocky Elsom and Radike Samo were completely outplayed by their Irish counterparts.

“We knew they were going to be a very physical side,” McCalman said. “We just played into their hands and, for whatever reason, we had one-out runners and just didn’t play as a team across the board. That’s where we let each other down.

“There’s a lot of things to improve on. We had a game plan, but we couldn’t complete that game plan 100 percent. There are certain areas: breakdown, scrum, lineout that we have to improve for next week.”

US Eagles captain Todd Clever, however, saw enough flaws in Australia’s performance to think the unthinkable.

Asked whether his team had any hope of emulating Ireland, Clever said: “It’s not impossible, is it?”