It was Australia's prime time moment in front of a home audience as they thrashed New Zealand 31-0 to win last year's Sydney Sevens women's title.
But the Black Ferns haven't lost a game of women's rugby sevens since, with coach Allan Bunting admitting on his return to Sydney this week that the 2018 humbling might've been exactly what was needed.
New Zealand won every other world series event that followed but couldn't catch the fast-starting Australia in the title race, while they went on to pip the hosts for gold in extra time at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
A season-ending achilles tear to star try scorer Portia Woodman hasn't slowed them in 2019 with the Kiwis a perfect two-from-two before this week's Sydney Sevens at Spotless Stadium starting on Friday.
"Last year we suffered our biggest defeat ever here and got a good smack on the bum and good learnings from that," Bunting said.
"It helped us in the Commonwealth Games; we revisit that (loss) often and it really helps us focus on what matters today.
"So we're quite thankful for that now; what it did for us was really vital and we're not sour about it."
New Zealand will play England, France and Papua New Guinea in Friday's pool games, while Australia's opponents will be United States, China and Spain.
Canada and the US split the two Tasman rivals after two rounds, while Australia have a six-point gap on fifth-placed France.
New Zealand hosted China, France and England in the inaugural Fast Four exhibition tournament alongside the men's Hamilton leg last weekend while Australia opted to remain at their Sydney training base.
