Turnovers killed off Wallabies

Australia were their own worst enemies in the disappointing opening match of the Rugby Championships.

Wallabies captain David Pocock bemoaned the team's high error count in their eight-point (19-27) loss to the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday.

"It was very disappointing," Pocock said, adding: "We just didn't adapt quick enough - we put the ball down too much.

"We need to work on our continuity, getting over the gain line, faster ball and holding on to our own ball.

"You can't have that many turnovers against a classy side.

"They applied a lot of pressure when they didn't have the ball.

"We were in the game, but it wasn't good enough tonight. Credit to the All Blacks, but we have a lot of work to do."

Wallaby coach Robbie Deans also spoke of his team's high error count.

"To their credit, they put us under pressure, but it was really the unforced errors that put us in a difficult position," Deans said.

"The set piece was pretty good tonight, there was a moment where we lost concentration but overall it was pretty good.

"We have to be better, that wouldn't be too hard I don't think. We'll definitely be better next week.

"Obviously we're not where we'd like to be, but now we've got prepare again for the All Blacks who are a tough side to crack."

Deans had plenty of praise for flyhalf Berrick Barnes, who is keeping Quade Cooper out of the Wallaby No.10 jersey.

"Berrick did pretty well tonight, he kicked well, but you've got to look at how the group came together and performed on the night.

"Some of the errors out there just aren't acceptable in any level of the game, now people will put that down to any number of things."

Wallaby scrumhalf Will Genia said Australia went away from their game plan.

"We just didn't trust how we wanted to play in the first half and they just put us under pressure and to our credit in the second half we trusted ourselves but just couldn't get back," Genia said.