New Zealand coach David Kidwell is adamant his team can still match it with Australia despite slumping to a fifth straight defeat to their Trans-Tasman rivals on Friday night.
The Kangaroos showed why they are currently the world's No.1-ranked nation after rampaging their way to a five-try lead in Canberra before eventually cantering to a 30-12 win.
The Kiwis had been expected to give the Kangaroos a real fight following the return of stars Kieran Foran, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Simon Mannering.
However the world No.2 nation struggled to maintain pressure in good ball position and compounded their attacking woes with some frail defence in the first half.
And while the Kiwis won the second half 12-6, Kidwell bemoaned his team's poor last-tackle options and lack of fight in the ruck during the opening period.
"We spoke about our kick finishes at halftime, and to Shaun (Johnson) and Kieran's credit, they fixed those up," Kidwell said post-game.
"Rugby league's a game of inches and those kicks, if they landed in the in-goal and we take those couple of opportunities, maybe the scoreline's a bit different.
"But we've got to start better and I thought we needed to control the ruck, the speed of the play the ball. That's something to work on and look at."
The defeat leaves Kidwell with just the one win from six matches since taking over coaching the national side midway through last season, including a shock draw with Scotland in the Four Nations.
Overall, the Kiwis have won just two of their past ten matches, although Kidwell believes the results aren't indicative of the difference between the two nations.
Asked if he felt far away from Australia, Kidwell said: "Not at all.
"Australia tonight were very good. They took their opportunities - we just couldn't quite execute it. But we got ourselves in a position to create opportunities, we just didn't execute there."
Kidwell gave special mention to the efforts of Russell Packer and Simon Mannering, before declaring that form - not reputation - will be his main criteria for World Cup selection.
The Kiwis' next game is against Samoa in their World Cup opener on October 28.
"For me, that's what I've learnt - guys that are actually hungry to put your hand up, you want to be involved in the World Cup," he said.
"We've got a great opportunity to possibly win another world cup and leave a legacy there."
