All Blacks: We can win it, says Mortlock

Stirling Mortlock says the Bledisloe Cup is not beyond his team's reach. Photo / Getty Images

The Wallabies have declared they can still get their hands on the Bledisloe Cup this year by beating the All Blacks in three straight tests.

Still hurting after the one that got away at Eden Park, the Australians believe they are improving at a rate fast enough to catch New Zealand and reclaim the trophy they last held in 2002.

Commentators had lined up to say the Wallabies needed to break their Auckland hoodoo against an out-of-form All Blacks with several stars short of a gallop and superstar five-eighth Dan Carter missing to have any chance of a transtasman series win.

That wasn't to be in a 22-16 loss which now sees Australia needing to win in Sydney next month, and then in Wellington and Tokyo later this year.

"We came here with a clear mindset to get the job done and hence, obviously, a lot of the guys are quite frustrated and quite disappointed," captain Stirling Mortlock said.

But asked if a series win was now in the too-hard basket, the Wallabies skipper was adamant.

"No way," he said. "If you ask any of the group, we're not focused too far ahead of ourselves.

"Obviously this has made it tougher but there's another three matches against the All Blacks."

Australia's players were feeling as much frustration as disappointment after the match, angry with bombing a certain try in the first half and mystified as to why they were pinged by referee Craig Joubert so many times at scrum time.

"From a group perspective that's a good learn," Mortlock said.

"Hopefully the way forward for us is we take heed of the opportunity that we're making rather than be daunted by that fact, embrace those opportunities ... I don't think we're too far off doing that."

Even though it happened in just the 18th minute, Berrick Barnes' failure to deliver a simple ball to a flying Mortlock, and then George Smith's dropped ball with the line wide open, was one of the game's turning points.

Barnes didn't dodge questions about it. "Shit happens.

"You have your best intentions.

"If I had it again I'd give it inside to Stirlo but it's right, you look up, [it was] your falcon ... it would have made The Footy Show anyway in Australia so there's a start."

Mortlock added: "The reality of that situation was we were spoiled by choice ... there was a lot of gold jerseys around that opportunity and sometimes that makes it harder."

Australia's blindside flanker curse continued with Richard Brown in doubt for the South Africa tour after suffering a foot injury.

He was, however, cleared of a break on Sunday afternoon and will be assessed further during the week.

Barnes and Matt Giteau suffered knocks to their hips but the injuries are not considered serious.

James Horwill broke his nose but is not in doubt for the Tri-Nations clash with South Africa in Cape Town on August 8.

"That's a very important game in terms of the series," Barnes said.

"We went there last year and proved we can do it and that's good confidence going into it.

"But we know that they've come out of one of the toughest series going on [against the British and Irish Lions]."

- AAP