Wallabies forwards coach Dan McKellar admits his side are eager to bounce back against South Africa following their third Test defeat.
The Wallabies fell to the All Blacks 38-21 in front of a near-capacity Optus Stadium, hampered by a litany of missed opportunities and denied chances.
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Speaking to media as they prepared to travel to Queensland for the final four rounds of the competition, McKellar suggested the side were their 'own worse' enemies throughout the defeat.
Despite this, he reinforced their improvements and believed they need to limit their turnovers if they wish to turn around their fortunes on Sunday at CBUS Super Stadium.
“Clearly disappointed. Disappointed and frustrated. We’ve had some really good periods within all three games but have been our own worse enemy at times,” McKellar admitted.
“The reality is we’ve gifted the All Blacks opportunities and points and you’ll never beat them while you’re doing that.
“I think we’re a lot closer than people would think but as I said, intercept passes, turnovers which give them opportunities to play from unstructured situations which they thrive on, we have to limit that.
“If you take the opportunities and take our own, obviously Marika was disallowed twice early on, other opportunities and the basics that we didn’t execute when we needed to, you take those chances and we build scoreboard pressure and put it back on the opposition.
“We think we’re closer than people think but the reality is we need to go back and focus on South Africa.”
Whilst McKellar rated the forwards' effort as a ‘pass mark’, he recognises South Africa poses a different threat as they prepare for a meeting with the World Champions.
“They’re very different (to the All Blacks),” he added.
“Their scrum, maul, line out, defence-based side, they prefer to play without the ball for long periods of time so they’ll give us the ball and we’ve got to really smart with what we do with it.
“…We’ve got genuine belief as a coaching group we’ve had a good look at South Africa and we see opportunities. They're the World Champions, the best in the world at the moment coming off a series win over the Lions and two Test wins over Argentina so we need to be at our best and put pressure on them to put them off their game.”
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McKellar also threw his support behind flyhalf Noah Lolesio after a tough series against the All Blacks.
“I think Noah has learnt a lot from his last three games against the All Blacks, he’s a young ten trying to find his feet at this level and he’s learning some hard sessions against the best in the world,” he added.
“He’s always doing some good things, when you look at our good passages, Noah’s a leading role in the majority of them. Have there been areas in his game where he needs to do better? Of course but he’s not alone there.
“I’m really proud of Noah. We’ve just got to understand he’s finding his feet at this level. It’s rare for any player, look at Richie Mo'unga, he’s not the same from 5 years ago so we have to be patient to develop and get them to the level as soon as we can.
