New Zealand coach Graham Henry made no excuses for his team’s poor second half performance in the 20-15 Bledisloe Cup defeat to Australia in Melbourne.
The All Blacks led 15-6 at the break but the Wallabies stormed back to throw the Tri Nations wide open with each of the three teams having won one game.
After Rico Gear crossed for a try in the 26th minute, the All Blacks failed to trouble the scorers for the rest of the match.
But Henry said that the hosts outplayed his team and fully deserved their victory.
"We have got no excuses," he said. "We came here to play rugby and do our best and we just didn’t take a few opportunities."
Although disappointed at losing the match, Henry admitted that things could have been different if his side had taken their chances in the first half.
"If we had taken our opportunities early it may have been a different result," he added.
"Hopefully we will learn a lot from this particular fixture.
"Hopefully it will be a big learning experience for us all.
"This side hasn’t lost often and I think you learn a lot from losing. Hopefully we do learn from that."
Henry admitted that being a World Cup year, there are larger fish to fry, and more important games still to come later in the year.
"It is better to lose now than to lose in October I guess," he concluded.
