The All Blacks have been frank in the assessment of their shortcomings following a chastening 28-19 defeat to South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday, lamenting their poor discipline and the raft of penalties that allowed the Springboks to pull clear.
The sides meet again in Durban next weekend, where New Zealand skipper Richie McCaw expects his side to tighten up.
"We didn't want to give away penalties, because it's three points, especially here with their big kickers, or they attack from the lineout," McCaw said. "It was pretty disappointing, the discipline in the first half, that kept letting the Boks off the hook. That's something we're going to have to address. When you're under a bit of pressure and you're trying to force that turnover, you haven't got the momentum so it's easier to be wrong there."
McCaw's Springbok counterpart John Smit agreed, but expressed his regrets that fly-half Ruan Pienaar's poor accuracy from the tee left so many opportunities go begging.
"I think we were accurate in areas, especially in their half, that forced them into overstepping the mark, it would have been nice just to convert all of them," he said. "One area that helped us was our discipline. There was none of the shenanigans that have been part and parcel of the last few (British & Irish Lions) Tests. It was just a nice hard Test, playing on the ball, smashing each other."
All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore was under scrutiny heading in to the game after a poor throwing performance against Australia, and his demons surfaced once again against the imposing Springbok duo of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha. The Hurricanes man was also guilty of conceding several penalites, but was typically forthright in admitting his errors.
"That's something you can't hide from. Once you're there you've got to get out of the way and I was guilty of giving a couple of those away," he said. "I hope we can fix it, otherwise it's going to be a pretty tough old campaign for myself. The Springboks jumped in the right places and put us under a lot of pressure there.
"So it's back to the drawing board. We'll head down to Durban and breathe a little bit easier and see how we go down there. It's just getting the right calls and getting everyone switched on at lineout time. Hopefully we can find the space to win some clean ball."