Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is promising perserverance not quick fixes, adamant his team can again finish the Rugby Championship strongly despite back-to-back thrashings by the All Blacks.
Cheika's tenure has come under increased scrutiny amid the 38-15 loss in Sydney and Saturday's 40-12 defeat in Auckland as the world champions secured the Bledisloe Cup for a 16th straight year.
While the opening losses all but ended the Wallabies' chances of a second title in the four-nation Rugby Championship, Cheika expected team changes to be minimal for the next clash with South Africa in Brisbane outside of the likely return from injury of Israel Folau and Taniela Tupou.
"(A) few little tweaks but perseverance definitely (is the main area for improvement). It's not always instant gratification unfortunately," said Cheika on arrival back in Sydney.
"We've been here before and we've bounced back and will again."
Cheika was referring to his team's 2016 and 2017 championship campaigns where they dropped the opening two matches to New Zealand before finishing strongly, losing just two of a combined eight home-and-way fixtures.
The coach became feisty at his post-match media conference in Auckland when asked about his job security, declaring any suggestion he was worried about himself was "naive".
Asked about those comments on Sunday, he denied he was "frustrated", saying: "If you ask the question, you're going to get an honest answer. I can fake it if you want me to and give the standard spiel. I thought I was just being honest, that's all. It's (truth) a bit of a casualty these days."
He admitted the All Blacks had shown there was a clear gap between the two teams in the key moments.
"(We need) more urgency around the opportunities that are created, both for us and against, obviously defence is a big part of the game too.
"Our defence in the more structured part of the game has been quite good. We caused a lot of turnovers. In the broken play area ... anyone that looks at the game will see that it's clearly that," he said.
"At the end of the day, the scoreline is the scoreline.
"I'm not being a smart alec, but that's the truth of the matter and you have to be honest about that and we've got to improve."
