The All Blacks come from behind to demolish Australia, Scott Dixon escapes frightening crash while Concussion strikes again
By Gregor Paul in Sydney
The Wallabies will be in Waiheke this week, fuming about their tragic set-piece and second half meltdown.
Those failings were their downfall in Sydney but nestled in the bush, among the kererus, millionaires and vineyards, that inability to deliver on the basics will become their greatest weapon.
It might seem that after a 38-13 loss that the pressure is all on Michael Cheika and the Wallabies and that their plan to hang out on Waiheke Island is the stuff of lunacy and desperation.
But in the insanely fine margin world of test rugby, the Wallabies have, however unlikely it may appear, a number of key advantages to exploit.
There should be rage in the Wallaby camp this week. There should be a ferocious determination to fix a lineout which descended into a shambles, a scrum that looked like it came equipped with a reversing camera to help it retreat with speed and precision and a system glitch that saw them become a touch loose and frantic when half chances opened up.
And above all else, they have history as their driver – a 15-year period in which they haven't held the Bledisloe and the knowledge that if they don't win this test at Eden Park, it will be 16-years since they last had any.
Mentally, it's all on a plate for the Wallabies and in fact the pressure is just as much, if not more so on the All Blacks to find a way to re-set and reach Eden Park just as focused and just as determined as they were in Sydney.
And this essentially is the nut they must learn to crack not just this week, but every week they play between now and the World Cup.
When it all boils down, this is the key to test football for the All Blacks: the endless ability to perform, process and recalibrate regardless of outcome.
Australia's Jack Maddocks, Nick Phipps, Tatafu Polota-Nau and Izack Rodda at full time. Photo / Photosport
Their technical, tactical and physical prowess only becomes a true weapon when it is glued together by clarity of thinking and collective honesty to understand that being great one week builds precisely zero guarantee it will all happen again the next.
"Their backs are against the wall and they are going to improve," was All Blacks coach Steve Hansen's frank assessment of what he's expecting from the Wallabies in Auckland.
"What I do know is that teams that get beaten learn better than teams that win.
"Teams that get beaten are hungrier than teams that have won. Our big challenge this week is to prepare better than them and be hungrier than them.
"The biggest learning thing you have to do is say that just because you are dominant on the scoreboard, were you actually dominant throughout the whole performance and the answer is no we weren't.
"They had their turn at being really effective without building scoreboard pressure so we need to go back and recover well and make sure that Monday is done properly and then get into our work and be excited by it."
This whole business of parking each test and then following up a big performance with another big performance is an obsessive pursuit for Hansen and his All Blacks.
Those players who have been around for a while know this is the nub of being an All Black – playing well but never being satisfied it was well enough.
Playing well in one test but understanding that the onus is on individuals to find a way to play better the next.
"It is quite dangerous to take a feeling from the end of a game into the next week because it is a completely different week," said flanker Sam Cane.
"And if you do that, you can start the week off feeling quite good about yourselves, but you have to get your feet firmly back on the ground and reset and find ways that we can get better and improve quickly because I can guarantee they will be doing that in their camp.
"They will be dangerous and they will look to learn off all they didn't quite nail last night. We need to be hard on ourselves to be sharp on the learning aspect to be better."
