Thank goodness they have gone.

The moustaches I mean, not the men who sported them.

Australia's rugby players were part of a campaign to use the month of 'Mo-vember' (get it? I didn't) to highlight men's health issues.

Just as impressively, they highlighted the gulf between northern and southern hemisphere rugby.

When the Wallabies arrived on their annual end-of-season tour to Europe, we were told that they were both hapless and hopeless, divided by internal disputes and severely weakened by injuries to key players.

They had finished a distant third in the Tri-Nations and had just lost to a far from vintage All Blacks team for the seventh time in a row.

Although they saw off a disjointed and depressing England at Twickenham, they lost to a spirited Scotland side at Murrayfield and most pundits felt they were ripe for the plucking by Wales in Cardiff.

Yet the worst of the Tri-Nations was far too good for Wales.

Australia confirmed their status as the world's number three and in the process served notice that, come the World Cup in 2011, they will again be serious contenders.

Their annihilation of Wales, coinciding with the demolition of France by the All Blacks in Marseille, was a stunning example of how rugby under the new laws – and equally as importantly under the new interpretations – could and should be played.

In the process, the Wallabies taught a lesson to England as well as to Wales.

If the experienced Matt Giteau was man of the match, his 21-year-old half-back partner Will Genia was not very far behind him.

One of the killer first-half tries was scored by another 21-year-old, flanker David Pocock, while the other two were scored by 24-year-olds in their third season of international rugby.

The two props in a vastly improved Wallaby set-piece were both 25, yet had a half-century of caps between them.

On the bench was the 19-year- old James O'Connor and the 20-year-old Kurtley Beale.

In Australia, it seems, if you are good enough, you are old enough.

Compare and contrast, as they say in the best exam papers, how England treat their youngsters.

Joe Simpson, of Wasps, shone in the same Under-20 World Cup as Genia and Pocock, alongside Saracens pair Andy Saull and Alex Goode.

Northampton's Courtney Lawes has burst on to the club scene in England in much the same way as fellow lock Horwill announced his presence in Australian rugby a couple of years ago.

Lawes' Northampton club- mate, Ben Foden, has not only been the outstanding attacking full-back in England this season, but the only number 15 in Martin Johnson's England squad.

Not one of them, it would appear, has been embraced by the England set-up.

The three Londoners are yet to feature on the Johnson radar, while Lawes and Foden have been sent home early from England get-togethers. In England, it seems, you are not good enough until you have been around the block a few times.

England could argue that they are spoilt for choice, while Australia are forced by the shallowness of their playing-pool, to take a gamble on youth.

It is better, they argue, to opt for the tried and tested, the physically and mentally mature, than it is to run the risk that a youngster might not be equipped to cope with the peculiar demands of Test rugby.

Underpinning that argument is blind faith in the old dictum that winning is everything.

According to that philosophy, any coach that publicly puts potential and performance before results is selling the jersey short and short-changing spectators who have paid through the nose for tickets and demand value for money.

New Zealand believe that long-term success – increasingly judged on World Cup performances – is more likely to be achieved by short-term gambling. By their own accounts, they have had a tricky 2009, but they have found out a lot about their fringe players and ended it ranked number one in the world.

Australia, by showing trust in their exciting youngsters, have likewise made significant forward strides.

'Mo-vember' has shown that while young Wallabies may not be much cop at growing moustaches, they are well-equipped to play Test rugby.

It has told us nothing about their English counterparts.