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Deans remains humble
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Wallabies coach Robbie Deans was quick to congratulate the All Blacks after Australia's 10-39 Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations hammering at Eden Park on Saturday.
Rather than criticising his own team, Deans pointed to All Blacks' superiority as the reasons for their loss.
The usually faultless Wallabies line-out had an off night, losing eight of their own throws, but Deans felt a lot of the errors from Australia were due more to All Blacks' pressure.
"It was essentially a mirror of last week," Deans told the ARU after the Auckland Test.
"The All Blacks built pressure and didn't allow us to build any pressure, were very effective on the gain line, were very effective at the breakdown and as a consequence we weren't able to get into the game.
The former Crusaders coach was not surprised however at the intensity with which the All Blacks returned fire after the Wallabies 34-19 victory in Sydney last weekend.
"We
anticipated the intensity, we anticipated their approach - it wasn't perfect but they still profited from it," continued Deans.
"There's still a long way to go. It won't be the last time we lose and we'll win another game at some point as well."
Deans is a mastermind at turning teams around and despite the Wallabies resounding loss they are still very much in with a strong chance of winning this year's Tri-Nation's and re-claiming the Bledisloe Cup.
As Deans showed with the Crusaders time and time again in the Super 14, his teams are very capable of bouncing back from a deflating defeat and usually the very next week. Lessons will be learnt and the Wallabies will head to South Africa in ten days time with just as much determination as they had travelling to New Zealand.
Deans' mirror analogy proved accurate, as whereas in Sydney the Wallabies forwards had been totally dominant, the Australian pack were outplayed in Auckland by an All Black eight
inspired by the return of captain Richie McCaw.
The loss of flank Rocky Elsom to injury was felt, as openside flank George Smith tried hard but fought a losing battle with referee Mark Lawrence. Phil Waugh found the going tough after being concussed by McCaw's elbow in a tackle in the first half.
Lock Nathan Sharpe, who was substituted later in the game for Dan Vickerman, noted how the All Black intensity wrecked havoc with their normally immaculate line-out.
"I think we put too much pressure on ourselves in not executing things well right across from the line-out to the breakdown as well," said Sharpe.
"When they [the All Blacks] come with that sort of intensity and we make those sorts of mistakes then it puts them on the front foot and it's very hard to recover from that," he added.