A deflated Wallabies side headed back to Australia yesterday still wondering how to turn a convincing lead over the All Blacks into a victory.

On Saturday at Eden Park, just as they had in Brisbane and Hong Kong last year, the Wallabies jumped out to an early lead before the All Blacks ground them down for a 22-16 victory.

Australia led 10-0 and 13-3 within the first 20 minutes and also blew a certain try when Berrick Barnes failed to feed any of his support players until it was too late.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is in the sophomore year of a four-year project to build a team capable of winning the 2011 World Cup, but Saturday's match was his best chance to snatch some psychological ammunition early in this year's Tri-Nations.

The Wallabies had looked settled and composed in their June internationals against France and Italy, while the All Blacks bumbled through their programme against the same opposition.

Several new faces were introduced into the All Blacks in June as experienced players including Richie McCaw, Rodney So'oialo and Ali Williams were ruled out with injuries.

While So'oialo and McCaw returned to the side on Saturday, their only workout in at least a month was in club rugby earlier this month and they appeared rusty in the opening quarter.

Their experience however finally filtered through the rest of the side and with the rapid development of players like Kieran Read and Isaac Ross, Deans's Wallabies team may have trouble snatching any impetus this season.

His side do not yet have the type of depth that Deans had hoped for, or probably expected to have developed by this stage.

On Saturday, the former Canterbury Crusaders coach fell back on a mantra eerily reminiscent of former All Blacks coach John Mitchell's oft-lampooned talk of a "journey" and "moving forward as a group".

"It's a work in progress," said New Zealander Deans, who once served as Mitchell's assistant.

"We are clearly getting better and exposed more players (to international rugby). We will just keep going. It's a habit we have to acquire but it's coming.

"We obviously chased the game and tended to become a bit lateral, which is what happen when you chase the game.

"Other than that there was very little in it, so we are very pleased with our progress to be honest and looking forward to the next encounter."

Just in case the argument that progress is being made had not been hammered home, captain Stirling Morlock repeated the sentiment.

"I think it's really pleasing we are creating more opportunities and chances," Mortlock said.

"It's frustrating that we didn't take more opportunity of those chances. Our defence was really good. We created a lot of opportunities in attack, but just didn't finish them off.

"I think the All Blacks deserved their victory, we are very close and we have to move forward."

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