Richie takes the rap

New Zealand’s captain Richie McCaw has taken full responsibility for the All Blacks’ Tri Nations defeat to the Wallabies.

“Everyone, myself included, put a lot of effort into the trip to South Africa. We took a while to get into that game and at the end we did what we needed to do.

“Then we got to Melbourne and I don’t think we were all mentally quite there. We thought we were but come the end of it we weren’t.

“The frustrating part was we got the foundation right, we just didn’t finish the job.

“And myself, and the other leaders in the team, needed to make sure when the Wallabies got their tails up we changed our tack a wee bit – perhaps we didn’t need to play with the ball behind the gain-line as we did a bit.

“I definitely take some of the responsibility for that. It has been a big learning curve for everyone.”

However, he preferred to look on the bright side, rather than dwell on the defeat.

“You’ve got to use it to your advantage. It made us take a good look at what we got wrong. Perhaps the week before we glossed over a few things that we didn’t get quite right in South Africa.

“I know a lot of the guys are hurting…if we don’t learn from this experience, then this team is in trouble.

“Everything we’ve done so far has been to get us right for the World Cup. We’ve really got to take a step forward for these last two Tests,” concluded the All Black captain.