Easier said than done, as the Wallabies have now tallied 15 straight Tri Nations losses away from home after their defeat at Eden Park on Saturday night. But five-eighth Matt Giteau is convinced that despite the magnitude of their Auckland loss, there were glimpses during the game that the team was on the right course.

Giteau, like Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, was encouraged by the fact players continued to trust themselves, as shown with the excellent Adam Ashley-Cooper try just before half-time. According to Deans, taking risks is better than "just curling up".

The problem was the All Blacks were so dominant in the key areas, in particular the breakdown, set-pieces and positional play, that the Wallabies were back-pedalling for most of the game, and chances to be expressive were limited. They were rushed and made errors under pressure, contributing factors in all of New Zealand's four tries.

Another hurdle was that the Wallabies experienced their worst lineout effort in years. In days of woes, the Wallabies have always relied on their lineout work to steady the situation.

However, the All Blacks, so often overwhelmed by the Wallabies in that area, succeeded in snaffling eight of Australia's throws, while Wallabies wins were often rushed and ill-directed, putting a scrambling halfback Luke Burgess under further pressure. The All Blacks succeeded in driving through the Wallabies lineout, indicating poor communication among the Australian forwards, especially when opposing prop Tony Woodcock scored.

The loss of Rocky Elsom both at the lineouts and breakdown was immense, especially with Phil Waugh suffering a heavy knock early on. Little wonder Deans later said: "It [the lineout effort] is not one that we will reflect on with a lot of pride."

Giteau, the man of the match the previous week in Sydney, was relatively buoyant, explaining that after five straight Test victories under the Deans regime, such a devastating result could have the desired effect of "bringing us back to earth".

"A bit of a reality check might be good for the guys," Giteau said. "It will make us work, even though the work ethic is already very good with this team. It just reinforces how tough it is to win away from home and we need that heading to South Africa."

The Wallabies have been given a week off, before a 28-man squad is selected next week for the two Tests against South Africa in Durban on August 23 and Johannesburg the following weekend. The only player in doubt is Ashley-Cooper with a suspected broken hand.

Giteau is adamant the players will not head to South Africa with an inferiority complex, even if they haven't won there since 2000.

"It was a tough loss," Giteau said. "But we know we're only at the half-way mark of the Tri Nations, and you don't have time to dwell on any losses. You just look at the Kiwis - a week is a long time and you can turn things around quickly.

"Not starting well hurt us in the end. But when we scored just before half-time we got that confidence back. We were then telling each other we were right back in the match. We felt if we played smart and got down there, we were a chance by trying to build the points. However, the All Blacks kept dominating field position, and it was hard to really attack."

Giteau said the main difference between the Sydney win and the Auckland loss was New Zealand were far better under the high ball, and succeeded in "pinning us down in our own half … whereas last week we were able to turn those high kicks and dominate field position a bit more".

"I still feel we had the right game plan to beat the All Blacks. But we just weren't able to execute it," Giteau said.

It was also clear the All Blacks wanted to expose Burgess early on, with many of Daniel Carter's high bombs aimed around him. Burgess held up reasonably well, but the attention clearer distracted him.

Deans appeared exasperated that while the All Blacks' kicking game wasn't perfect, it became irresistible. "Some of their kicking was contestable, and they weren't even that effective, but we weren't accurate in securing it," Deans said. "The bounce went their way. They built momentum and field position."