All Blacks coach Ian Foster admits the late Wallabies surge in his side's victory in the first Bledisloe Cup test on Saturday had been a "disappointing" way to close out proceedings at Eden Park.
With 15 minutes remaining, the hosts had held a 33-8 advantage, only to ease off the gas, as the Australians ran in three morale-boosting tries to reduce the final scoreline to 33-25 at the final whistle.
But, a win is a win - and Foster, generally, came away pleased with what he saw from his players in shaking off an unconvincing start to kill off the contest with a commanding performance through the middle third of the match.
"The first 15 [minutes] we were overly excited I think, and gave them some free swings at us with our discipline," Foster says.
"The last 15 we were disappointing in terms of the way we stepped off the pace. The middle 50 I was delighted with the composure and attitude, and at 33-8 we should have done better.
"But it's a Bledisloe Cup series, we've put a stake in the ground, we’re 1-0 up and we're looking forward to next week."
That final 15 minutes will leave a bitter aftertaste, but not enough to overpower the sweetness of having their hand raised yet again at the Fortress of Eden, where one more win next week will ensure the Bledisloe Cup remains in Aotearoa for an 18th consecutive year.
"It’s the first test in a Bledisloe, and they were always going to be a massive test," he says. "They came over here very well prepared and threw everything at us.
"The way we came back and really squeezed it was pleasing, and we were doing really well at 33-8.
"Then it was disappointing … we take a lot of pride in how we finish and we didn't finish that well. There are some things we’ll take away and work on and people will talk about that all week.
"But at the end of the day it’s 1-0, and we’ll go into next week with a nice list of things to improve."
Foster identifies the decision to turn down a shot at goal opt for a line-out at the end of the first half as a key turning point in the match, when wing Sevu Reece burrowed over from a close-range ruck to bolster the All Blacks' advantage to 16-8 heading into the sheds.
Result aside, Foster confesses he and his coaching cohorts will have plenty of new boxes to try and tick before next weekend's second test, paying tribute to coach Dave Rennie's enthusiastic young troops.
"They’re a good young team, playing with plenty of passion and they’ll take a lot of confidence from the way they finished that game and we'll take a lot of confidence from the result," he notes.
"I guess both camps will go away and figure things out."
Across in that other camp, Rennie has rued some opportunistic moments that ultimately cost his side dearly, but is pleased with the resiliency his side showed in powering to the finish line.
"We applied a lot of pressure," Rennie says. "We gave up a soft one before half-time, gave up an intercept (try) not long after halftime and the All Blacks were able to steal a bit of momentum there.
"We're really happy with the impact we got off the bench. I'm really happy with the character.
"Last year in Sydney we got behind a bit and started throwing things out our backside, chasing the game early and got absolutely hammered. So that was a positive, but we're still pretty disappointed."
"For a big chunk of the game we defended well, but with the All Blacks you’ve got to do that for 80 minutes."
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