The Wallabies' World Cup hopes have suffered a hammer blow with a shock loss to Fiji - their first in the history of the tournament - to put a quarter-final berth at major risk.
The undermanned Australians couldn't match the power and pace of the Pacific islanders, going down 22-15 in their pool clash at Saint-Etienne's Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Fiji earned a scrum penalty after full-time and could have denied the Wallabies a crucial bonus point too, but Frank Lomani's kick went wide of the posts.
The Wallabies have sunk to third in their pool, on six points, with their future in the tournament hanging on the result of their next clash with unbeaten Wales in Lyon.
The Australians have never missed the play-off stage of the tournament.
Enjoying their first win over Australia since 1954, Fiji sit second, also on six points, and have a two-week break before they face winless Georgia in Bordeaux with their first quarter-final appearance since 2007 beckoning.
Australia went into the match minus three key players, with giant skipper Will Skelton a late casualty with a calf injury, joining spearhead prop Taniela Tupou and first-choice halfback Tate McDermott on the sidelines.
Without lock Skelton and Tupou, the Wallabies lacked the big ball-carriers to punch through the steely Fijian defence and couldn't use their set-piece to dominate as they did in their opening win over Georgia.
Fiji, who had a first-up loss to Wales, said the match was "do or die" and played accordingly.
With eight players from their Super Rugby Pacific side Fijian Drua and many others playing in the top leagues around the world, they were ferocious at the breakdown and played with width, running the Wallabies defence ragged.
But Fiji also played a smart game, using their tactical kicking to pressure Australia and also taking the points on offer with the men in yellow incurring seven penalties in the first half alone.
All of Fiji's points in the opening 40 minutes came from the boot of halfback Simione Kuruvoli with four penalty strikes giving his team a 12-8 lead.
The Wallabies opened with a penalty by Ben Donaldson in the third minute and then took advantage of a suspect turnover by lock Richie Arnold.
Halfback Nic White than nailed a 50:22 and Mark Nawaqanitawase caught former NRL winger Semi Radradra off guard, taking a quick throw-in to Samu Kerevi who passed it back inside for the winger to score.
Coach Eddie Jones's hopes of his Wallabies team taking control of the match in the second half went out the window three minutes in when Josua Tuisova charged over.
The block-busting centre was gifted the ball after some confusion between Nawaqanitawase and five-eighth Carter Gordon about who would take a kick put up by Kuruvoli.
While Gordon defended bravely, Jones yanked the youngster in the 49th minute, bringing on winger Suliasi Vunivalu and shifting Nawaqanitawase to fullback and Donaldson to 10 as he tried to kick-start the attack.
The men in white extended their lead to 22-8 in the 66th minute through a penalty kick by replacement halfback, ex-Melbourne Rebels halfback Frank Lomani.
Vunivalu gave Wallabies fans a glimmer of hope when he slammed the ball over the line after a pick-and-go with Donaldson adding the extras to close the gap to seven points.
The Australians started to make some inroads in attack and with their set-piece but the dumb penalties kept coming, with referee Andrew Brace whistling up a horror count of 17.
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