Australian captain Stirling Mortlock is confident last Saturday's horrific record loss to South Africa will quickly be shown to be little more than an aberration.

The Wallabies suffered their biggest ever Test defeat with a 53-8 Tri-Nations drubbing at the hands of the rampant Springboks in Johannesburg.

They returned to Australia on Monday to regroup for a Tri-Nations decider against New Zealand in Brisbane on September 13.

Mortlock admitted on Monday the magnitude of the loss stung, but said they ran into a "red-hot" team and added he believed the Wallabies, with six wins in eight matches under new coach Robbie Deans, could turn their form around.

"There's nothing we can do or say that'll change that result, we get an opportunity now to have a few days off and then a real genuine chance to do something special in a week and a half," Mortlock said.

"We have so much to play for next week.

"I think everyone will be absolutely mentally where they need to be, in the right place."

Mortlock said the Wallabies' problems were not major.

"A lot of what we can control, our shape in attack, our set piece, our defensive shape can be fixed quite easily, I guess that's a semi-positive thing," he said.

He added that the team had previously shown their ability to regroup after a bad result.

"I guess as a group we have proved that we can come back from disappointment so that's one positive thing," he said.

"But certainly at the moment we'll be licking a few wounds and taking this time to reflect and re-energise so that when we get back into camp on Sunday we're ready to go."

Deans said he would not look beyond the current squad for the All Blacks match.

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