Wallabies battered by ruthless All Blacks in third Bledisloe Cup Test

James Slipper says the Wallabies are learning what it means to be a world class team the hard way. But little more than an hour than an hour removed from another loss to the All Blacks, Australian coach Dave Rennie says he wouldn't have scripted the next challenge any other way.

The Wallabies have fallen victim to an All Blacks whitewash more fittingly described as a blackout with a 38-21 defeat in the final Bledisloe Cup Test in front of 52,724 at Perth Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Rennie's side has now conceded 128 points in three Test matches against the All Blacks and one expects there could be changes at the selection table heading into a Rugby Championship clash against South Africa. James O'Connor enters the frame for one.

New Zealand's triumph serves as the exclamation point on their 19^th consecutive year in control of the Bledisloe Cup, and scorelines suggest the gap between the trans-Tasman rivals seems as wide as ever.

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But Rennie is adamant the Wallabies are bridging the gap.

"It's easy to look at the scoreline isn't it? We gifted a lot of points, a couple more intercepts today, a couple away last week," Rennie said.

"I feel that the scoreline of the last couple of weeks hasn't been a fair indication of where the game is at but that's just the way it is. You've got to deny them opportunities, you've got to defend for long periods, and we've got to be clinical with our chances.

"I have no doubt our attack has grown a lot throughout that period, and fair to say what others have been saying because we're playing a bit of footy, if you turn it over, you can get exposed.

"That's the balance to our game. We're not where we want to be, we're certainly working hard and we've got a good group of young men who are learning quickly."

The Wallabies were without Hunter Paisami and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, but even that pales in comparison to those missing from All Blacks camp.

The visitors made the trip to Perth without stay-at-home stars Richie Mo'unga, Sam Whitelock and Aaron Smith.

After 28 minutes they were down another high-profile star after Jordie Barrett was shown a red card having leapt high to take a kick and sticking his leg out mid-air, which collected the face of Marika Koroibete who slumped to the surface.

It mattered little in terms of the scoreboard as the visitors took a commanding 18-0 lead into the half-time break, with tries to Barrett and inside centre David Havili complemented by a pair of Beauden Barrett penalties.

"It was obviously a period in the game that was very important, and at the end of the day we didn't do a good enough job there as a team to convert pressure into points," Slipper said.

"We had everything going for us there and we ended up kicking the ball dead, and then it just snowballed from there. It caused a few issues for us and then we were on our own try line before half time and we leaked a try and that really hurt us.

"It's one of those things, when you create opportunities, you've got to take them. On the flipside, you've got to hold their opportunities. We probably didn't do that great for that 10-minute period.

"I don't know if experience is what we're after, just nailing our skill under pressure. It's a team that's growing at the moment and we're finding out the hard way that if you don't get things right, especially against a good All Black team, they can punish you.

"This sort of night, it's another disappointing result."

New Zealand spent 20 minutes undermanned but outscored the Wallabies throughout the period. The All Blacks' return to 15 men was at least met by the hosts' first try with hooker Folau Fainga'a crossing in his return from exile.

It offered a glimmer of hope, but that was soon overshadowed when Akira Ioane beat three defenders and sent winger Will Jordan over. A Matt Philip pass was intercepted for Havili's second. The Wallabies' left edge fell apart as Anton Leinert-Brown went over. George Bridge cruised onto a bouncing ball to score untouched.

The only blemishes for the All Blacks in this period came from a trio of ACT Brumbies.

The first came when Pete Samu burst through a ruck and found Nic White on his inside to score. Then White turned one inside to Tom Banks to score.

Both sides now continue their Rugby Championship campaigns with a series of double headers in the sunshine state.

New Zealand face Argentina first, while the Wallabies tackle the Springboks with Slipper's ability on both sides of the scrum now looming as a crucial weapon in Rennie's arsenal with Allan Alaalatoa likely to leave camp at some stage "on baby duty".

While they were exposed by the All Blacks and now face the reigning world champions, Rennie is relishing the challenge ahead.

"It's brilliant, it's what we want and what we need," Rennie said.

"Obviously we're playing the Argentinians, we're going to play Japan we're pretty sure, Scotland, England, Wales. It's a great run of games and important for our development so we're excited."

AT A GLANCE

Bledisloe Cup game three: ALL BLACKS 38 (David Havili 2, Jordie Barrett, Will Jordan, Anton Leinert-Brown, George Bridge tries; Beauden Barrett conversion; Beauden Barrett 2 penalties) bt WALLABIES 21 (Folau Fainga'a, Nic White, Tom Banks tries; Reece Hodge 2, Noah Lolesio conversions) at Perth Stadium. Crowd: 52,724.

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