All Blacks coach Ian Foster claims midfielder Rieko Ioane is "frustrated", after his "sloppy" error cost his side a chance at victory, instead of their 16-16 draw against Australia in the Bledisloe Cup opener.
With New Zealand leading 8-3 just before the halftime break, Ioane crossed for what would have been New Zealand's second try, but as he went to ground the ball, he dropped it.
The try was awarded at first, but video match official Mike Fraser deemed Ioane had failed to control the ball in the act of scoring.
The play overshadowed Ioane's performance at centre and he was replaced midway through the second half, but Foster refuses to blame the 23-year-old for the draw.
"He's feeling pretty frustrated with himself, but it is what it is," says Foster. "It's one of those little lessons that players have to go through and I thought he had a reasonably strong game apart from that.
"That's why they call them test matches, because you've got to take those little moments and when you get a little sloppy in those moments, it can come back and bite you.
"You don't dwell on errors in test matches - there were a lot of errors before that and there were a lot of errors after that. It certainly would've been nice, but it's not the reason we drew."
Asked if he thought Ioane's error cost them the game, Foster responds: "Not at all."
While Ioane made a blunder, he also appeared to get away with a call earlier in the match, when he appeared to step into touch in the lead-up to the game's first try, scored by Jordie Barrett.
Touch judge Angus Gardner was standing right by Ioane when the incident happened, but it was only picked up on later replays.
But his 'faux pas' before the break proved a huge turning point, as the Wallabies fought back to take the lead in the closing stages of the match.
Barrett levelled the scores with a 79th-minute penalty and then Reece Hodge had a chance to win the test with a long-range strike, but his attempt hit the right-hand upright.
The All Blacks had chances to win, as first-five Richie Mo'unga set up for a drop goal, but instead, they tried another play that didn't work out and the Wallabies booted the ball into touch, eight minutes into stoppage time.
"We had a number of opinions in the [coaching] box, but I thought we calmed ourselves down, we were well set up for a drop goal," says Foster. "I think you'll see Richie [Mo'unga] was hovering around in that position, but Jordie called for the ball and it was a pretty solid decision."
"Jordie was unmarked on the side, but again, it's skill execution and we couldn't quite get the ball out to where it needed to be.
"That hurts, but again, it's a message to us all that test rugby is back and if you're not good enough in those big moments, then you don't get what you want out of it.
"We created a few opportunities that we weren't good enough to take. At the end of the day, with a draw, it's bitterly disappointing from an All Blacks side, but it's a start and we've got a pretty good marker of where we're at right now."
Attention now shifts to the second Bledisloe test in Auckland.
"We can't wait for Eden Park now," says Foster. "We've got a job to do and Eden Park is pretty special for us.
"We want to play pretty well up there and we're going to have to. We saw that tonight."
The Wallabies haven't won in New Zealand since 2001.
Join us at 4pm Sunday for live updates of the second Bledisloe Cup test between the All Blacks and Wallabies
