Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has hailed the ground-breaking Hong Kong venture a raging success despite watching his side suffer more Bledisloe Cup disappointment at the hands of the All Blacks.
The Wallabies are en route to Europe today for further Tests against Italy, England, France and Wales after squandering another second-half lead to lose 19-14 to the All Blacks in the first-ever Bledisloe Cup fixture contested outside of Australasia last night.
“It was a great event,” Deans said.
“It was an experiment as such. I believe both sides have enjoyed it. There’s no doubt the public enjoyed it and it’s certainly worth doing it again.
“But there’ll be people further up the food chain who will make that decision.”
For the second Test running, Australia, courtesy of two tries to winger Drew Mitchell, led into the second half only to allow New Zealand to run over the top of them in the final half hour.
“We looked at our needs post-Tri Nations and I believe we’ve made progress,” Deans maintained.
“We were possibly more deserving this time, but still not good enough. We’ve just got to keep going and get to the point where we’re so deserving that we get home.”
Skipper Stirling Mortlock also believes the Wallabies have “made up significant ground” on their trans-Tasman rivals this season, despite losing the annual series 3-1.
“It’s hard because we’ve come off two losses, two very close losses,” he said.
“But we have a really positive focus about this tour and it’s a great opportunity to get a huge amount of development out of this squad.
“When I look at this group, I see a lot of potential and the aim is hopefully to start feeling that potentially.”
Mortlock is confident the Wallabies’ month of conditioning camps in Australia pre-tour will bear fruits in Europe after he felt signs of the physical groundwork kicking in during a “draining” Bledisloe Cup encounter played out in high humidity in Hong Kong.
“The feeling that I had was that the work we’ve done over the past five weeks has really showed, or I could feel it,” he said.
“Maybe it wasn’t clearly evident in our performance, but the communication of the guys working through fatigue and our ability to switch on in transitions when we turned the ball over when they got penalties … guys weren’t letting off the hammer. The little things were there.
“You can feel this group is growing. You can feel the positivity and guys just wanting to give more.
“And that’s evident. It hasn’t translated into results yet, so that’s disappointing.
“But I think when you give it your all, when you go out on the sporting field and you’re exposed and you do everything in your power to get a result, you can hold your head high.
“And I think we’re close to that.”
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