All Blacks powerhouse Ardie Savea hasn't minced his words, when asked what his team lacked in the third-test defeat to Ireland at Wellington.
The tourists' 32-22 win consigned the 2022 All Blacks to infamy, as the first to lose a test series to the Irish and just the third to ever concede a three-test series on home soil.
The Hurricanes No.8 was one of the few All Blacks to emerge from the series with an enhanced reputation, after his Herculean performance in a losing effort at Sky Stadium.
But a forlorn Savea clearly - and predictably - takes no solace in his own individual display, as he reflects on what he sums up as a simple lack of pride in the hallowed black jersey.
"We've also got to question our mana and our heart," Savea said. "We talked about starting well, and the Irish came and scored within the first five minutes again.
"That's not up to our standards. We've got to try and get out of the trenches, and put some pride back in the black jersey, because it's not there at the moment."
The visitors exploded out of the gate with three first-half tries, maintaining relentless pressure both in attack and defence to take a 19-point lead into the sheds, as the contest threatened to devolve into a blowout.
Facing their biggest-ever halftime deficit, the All Blacks countered with their own surge to open the second half and turned the match back into a genuine contest, before untimely errors and a desperate Ireland conspired to send them to their fourth defeat in their last five tests, and an unwelcome place in NZ rugby history.
Savea points to that second-half display as proof of what the All Blacks are capable of, when they put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"We got a rile up at halftime, and we came out firing in the first 10 minutes and started getting our mojo back," he noted. "Just a few moments in that game where we dropped the ball or knocked it on in our own half and the Irish punished us.
"We've got to look hard at ourselves in the mirror, really hard, because that's not good enough on our standards. The boys are hurting, it's gut wrenching."
Veteran hooker Dane Coles shares Savea's frustrations with another lacklustre opening spell, as well as an overall lack of effort he believes the entire squad needs to be accountable for.
"We've got to walk the talk a bit more I think," said Coles. "We're missing something at the moment.
"I don't have the magic thing for it, but there's something that needs to change from the whole group.
"Everyone has to have a deep look at themselves… we've just got to put all our wisdom and hurt together, and come up with better solutions and better effort to represent this black jersey, because it's not good enough at the moment."
The schedule doesn't get any easier for the All Blacks, who now have a week off before travelling to South Africa for two tests against the world champions, who closed out a 2-1 series win over Wales on Sunday (NZ time).
The team have plenty of work ahead, if they're to right the ship in the white-hot cauldron of Africa, which Coles insists would start with some no-holds-barred critique.
"We've got to have some courageous conversations and get stuck into each other, then once we reach the solutions, we've got to bring this team up to an All Blacks standard."
