Bledisloe Cup rugby: Dave Rennie reveals where Wallabies went wrong in record defeat to All Blacks

The Wallabies lineout went awry at crucial moments. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has blamed his side's record Bledisloe Cup defeat to the All Blacks on a poor defensive effort and a lack of ball control.

The All Blacks scored eight tries to three at Eden Park in the 57-22 victory, the most points they have scored against Australia, with the visitors unable to capitalise on Ardie Savea's sinbinning at the start of the second half.

Rennie and his men will leave for Perth on Sunday for the third test on August 28 with the series gone; the All Blacks have held the Bledisloe Cup for 19 years and counting, the Wallabies' woeful record at Eden Park stretching to 35 years.

"We were well beaten and well beaten because we didn't treasure the ball well enough," Rennie said. "I thought we defended really well in the first half… but we made some poor decisions and kicked poorly. We got exposed on the short side and threw a couple of intercepts when there was space to put pressure on them."

Noah Lolesio and Matt To'omua threw intercept passes, with Rieko Ioane and Sevu Reece the recipients. And rather than capitalise on Savea's absence for a ruck offence after a team warning, the Wallabies instead let in yet another try.

"It was a big part of the game wasn't it – [the score was] 21-15, [the All Blacks were] down a man and we get a five metre lineout," Rennie said. "A not straight [throw], not the worst I've seen but fair enough. Then we defend poorly off that scrum, get penalised and they get down our end and we give up a penalty and a soft [try].

"It's disappointing, it was a chance to ram it home.

"Any loss hurts. I'm disappointed we didn't build on what we did in the first half. There were a number of men who emptied the tank before coming off and pretty disappointed with what we got off the bench in comparison with the French series where our bench was outstanding."

The Wallabies lineout went awry at crucial moments. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said: "We put together some nice passages of play in the back end of the first half. We were scrummaging really well and New Zealand were infringing and pretty bad infringing.

"I thought that yellow could have come at the end of the first half before we got it at the start of the second. Our skill error to not capitalise on that – maybe I should have taken the shot on that. I didn't and it came back to hurt us. I take responsibility for that and I take responsibility for not being able to rally our guys there in order to get a better outcome in that critical 10 minutes."

The Wallabies looked utterly broken after midfielder David Havili scored a try well after the 80 minutes to put an exclamation mark on a vast improvement over last week's 33-25 victory.

Their scrum had disintegrated along with their defence but one bright spot will be the performance of halfback Tate McDermott.

"He's a handful," Rennie said.

"We found a lot of space. There was a lot of nice footy from an attack perspective but just not for long enough.

"You have to be able to put the foot on the throat for longer at this level. We've got a young side that is learning and learning quickly.

"What we know is that you defend well against the All Blacks and we didn't do that well enough."