But at the Oamaru Showgrounds in 1962, 15 men from North Otago willed it into existence.
On that day, the Old Golds, who were on that day wearing the scarlet red jerseys of Kurow due to clashing colours, defeated the Wallabies 14-13.
It was not a weak Australian side, either, with eight players who played in Oamaru suiting up against the All Blacks at Carisbrook four days later in a 3-0 loss.
Their achievement was immortalised this week as the team was inducted into the Waitaki Sports Hall of Fame.
Five of the six surviving members, Ian Edmondston, Tom Conlan, Max Eckhold, Len Familton and Neville Gard, attended the Network Waitaki Sports Awards on Monday night to be honoured.
Speaking on stage, Edmondston had a simple answer when asked what the most memorable moment of the game was.
‘‘The referee blowing the whistle for full time.’’
The sixth surviving member, Dave Finlay, was in Australia and could not attend.
He did send through a short speech that was read out.
‘‘History was made. What a day for North Otago rugby. Now here we are in the Hall of Fame and we all remember our team-mates who have died, and their families,’’ it read.
‘‘It was a well-executed game plan against the odds. I was marking Richard Thornett at scrum and lineout time, who seemed like a giant,’’ Findlay wrote of the match.
‘‘North Otago scored two great tries. Ghosty Coe got the first, and then a planned move from our lineout with Nev Gard coming in from the blindside wing created an overlap for Bill Pile to score by the posts.’’
North Otago led 6-5 at halftime and Australia worked their way in front before Pile scored what was ultimately the match winner with 20 minutes to go.
‘‘I was looking at the clock and there was 20 minutes to go, and I thought ‘this is going to be the longest 20 minutes of my life’.
‘‘But it went very, very quickly. In fact, when the referee did blow his whistle we were attacking right on our line.’’
On Monday night, Edmondston wanted to acknowledge the contributions of coach Ken McLeod to the win.
‘‘Ken McLeod was a great coach. He used to say ‘I don’t mind you losing here, but you’ll bloody well win over there’ and that’s what we did.’’
The team shared ‘‘a few beers’’ with the Wallabies after the match and then Edmonston, Eckhold and Finlay went to a pie shop for a drink.
When the man working there realised they played in the win, he told them ‘‘you won’t be paying here tonight lads’’.
Their historic victory was almost unthinkable back then and with the way rugby is set up in the modern era, it is a feat that will likely never happen again.
