KEY POINTS:
Lock Nathan Sharpe is sure the Wallabies will have their lineout back in working order when they meet the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations rugby finale in Brisbane next month.
The Wallabies struggled in an area where they are usually efficient, as they were humbled 39-10 in Auckland on Saturday night in their biggest loss to their transtasman rivals in 12 years.
While New Zealand won all but one of their own throws at Eden Park, the Australians lost eight, or a third, of theirs.
Sharpe described it as just one those nights, where a combination of small errors and pressure from the All Blacks created the problems.
"They did their homework on what they wanted to achieve in terms of putting pressure on us," he said.
"They certainly targeted certain areas and got a good result out of it. When you're a bit off and they're putting on a bit of pressure, it makes for a hard night."
The Wallabies face the Springboks in Durban and Johannesburg before hosting the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium on September 13 in what doubles as the third of four Bledisloe Cup tests this year.
Sharpe was confident he and his teammates would find their groove again in quick time.
"You can't go from having a very good lineout to a debacle in one game," he said.
"What it does is refocus us in that area. We've been going quite well in the lineouts until now and I'm sure that will be the case from here on as well."
Sharpe wasn't surprised by the dramatic turnaround in All Black performance in the space of just seven days.
The Wallabies had expected the New Zealanders to be fired up after suffering their second consecutive defeat in going down 19-34 in Sydney the previous week.
"The disappointing thing for us is that we didn't respond to it well enough," Sharpe said.
For Robbie Deans, it was a first reverse in six matches as Wallabies coach and he cited the lineout as one key reason.
"It's not one we will look back on with a lot of pride," he said of the lineout effort.
"The All Blacks grew an arm and a leg and were prepared to have a crack and get up, and they closed the gap and did it successfully.
"Because they were able to build pressure on us in that area, we weren't able to create a good foundation."
The Tri-Nations, which takes a break next weekend and resumes when the Springboks host the All Blacks in Cape Town on August 17 (NZT), remains wide open.
New Zealand head the table with 10 points from four matches, while Australia and South Africa, who each have a match in hand, have nine and five points respectively.
Meanwhile, All Blacks forward coach Steve Hansen denied a suggestion that New Zealand preferred not to kick for touch because they were shy about lineouts.
He said it was a case of denying the opposition a base to attack from, citing the example of the 19-8 win over South Africa in Wellington early last month.
"We gave them no lineouts and gave them no platform," he said.
"It's about how we think the opposition will play."
It wasn't a negative attitude, either, but rather an indication of the All Blacks' desire to keep the ball in play.
"We think we're a fit side," he said.
"We want them to run as opposed to having a stop-start game where they can go to something they're very comfortable with."
- NZPA
