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Steve Hansen confident New Zealand will bounce back from defeat

Image: Steve Hansen not too downcast despite Sydney defeat

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen expects a speedy reaction from his side after their defeat against Australia in the Rugby Championship decider.

The Wallabies showed plenty of resolve as they continued their improvement under new coach Michael Cheika in their third win in the southern hemisphere tournament ahead of next month's World Cup, winning 27-19 in Sydney.

Hansen conceded the Wallabies were the better side as they lost to their trans-Tasman rivals for the first time since the Tri-Nations decider in Brisbane in 2011. 

"We just got beaten by a better side on the night. We have to face up to that reality," Hansen said.

"It's an inconvenient fact. But we've been here before, we've lost games before and doesn't mean to say we've become a bad side."

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Highlights of the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup clash between Australia and New Zealand at the ANZ Stadium, Sydney.

Hansen said his team was hurting from losing to the Wallabies, but would use it to fire them up for the return Test in Auckland next weekend, a match that gives the Wallabies the chance to win back the Bledisloe Cup from the All Blacks they last held in 2002.

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All Blacks captain Richie McCaw thinks it was a few defensive mistakes that cost New Zealand the Rugby Championship title against Australia.

"We were in the game all the way through it, until we had a period there of about 10 minutes where we made some really poor decisions," Hansen said. "When you're under the pump, you've got to win those moments.

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"I would prefer to have no off nights. I think in 2011 we had an off night in Brisbane and was something we learnt from and we have to learn from this one. You bottle up the hurt and you make it work for you."

New Zealand's flanker and Captain Richie McCaw
Image: Richie McCaw says New Zealand's decision making was off

Captain Richie McCaw, who played his 141st international to equal the current world record held by Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll, said his team made some poor decisions when they hit the front 19-17 with 16 minutes left.

"We got ourselves ahead on the scoreboard and that's probably the moment there that we needed to really get things spot on and make the Wallabies do they things they weren't accustomed to," McCaw said.

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Hats off to Nehe Milner-Skudder who scored two tries on his debut for the All Blacks against Australia.

"We made it a bit easy through some poor decision making and they took their chances.

"That's probably a period of the game that's critical. And we've won games in the past because we've got that right and tonight we didn't."

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