All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has held his hands up in the wake of his side's 47-26 defeat to the Wallabies in Perth, simply stating that the better side won on the day.
Coming into the first Bledisloe Cup Test of 2019, the All Blacks and Wallabies traded shots in the first half, until lock Scott Barrett was shown a red card to a high shot on Australia captain Michael Hooper with the scores at 16-12 in favour of the hosts.
From there though, the Wallabies didn't let control of the match slip, running in six tries to completely overwhelm the 14-man All Blacks, taking the advantage into next weekend's second Bledisloe Cup Test in Auckland.
Fronting media at Optus Stadium, Hansen made no excuses for yet another underwhelming performance from the All Blacks.
"[We're] obviously disappointed," Hansen began.
"Australia played particularly well, deserved the win. They were the best side on the day.
"The red card didn't help us, but we didn't help ourselves either. Our discipline was poor early in that first half. We missed 20 tackles out of 90 in the first half, we didn't get ourselves away to a good start."
Hansen continued to say that his side have plenty to work on ahead of next week's Eden Park return clash.
"Our discipline was poor, we double piggybacked into the red card. There was numerous occasions where we got offside when we didn't need to.
"They're all things we've got to go away and fix up, and look at ourselves."
Despite being reduced to 14 men, the All Blacks still managed to give the Wallabies a challenge, running in four tries during a match which the scoreboard would suggest they were worse than they may have appeared.
"I'm extremely proud of how they hung in," Hansen added.
"If you're going to get a red card, the worst side you can get a red card against is a side that wants to play footy. Australia wanted to play footy.
"In the end they found more space than we could cover, so all credit to them."
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