What a conflict of emotions to feel at once extremely disappointed and yet encouraged by the Wallabies' curious performance against the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday night.
The All Blacks' 30-14 win was emphatic, catching the Australians on the hop with their high intensity and speed.
They suspected the Wallabies would attempt to play their trademark high-tempo, expansive style of game and anticipated their every move, spreading out in defence to snuff out the Australian attack.
Against any other team in the world, Australia would have scored two or three tries in the opening 20 minutes, but the All Blacks' scrambling defence held them out.
Coach Robbie Deans has criticised the team for not playing smart tactically, which is coach-speak for saying they veered away from the game plan.
Deans indicated that when they played more direct in the second half, they performed better.
The team needed to play direct from the outset of the game.
All the tight five has the ability to run with and handle the ball. When they used interchange passing in tight, they put the All Blacks on the back foot, creating space for the danger men out wide.
Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper apparently did not heed Deans' instructions to play direct until it was too late.
It was Cooper's first big lesson in discovering that Test rugby is a different game to Super Rugby, but he will benefit from the experience.
Cooper, who was predictable in his unpredictability, has been over-burdened with responsibility and the Wallabies need fullback Kurtley Beale and winger James O'Connor to fill in at first and second receiver occasionally to take the pressure off him.
The presence of Beale and O'Connor in the frontline would also provide them with much more variety in their attack.
But Cooper was only one of several players who were not at their best in certain areas.
Wallabies captain and blindside flanker Rocky Elsom missed several tackles that he would normally make, O'Connor missed three shots at penalty goals that he would usually knock over and openside flanker David Pocock was penalised for costly infringements at the breakdown.
As a team, the Wallabies' effort at the re-starts was simply abysmal.
Yet all of these problems are easily fixed and are unlikely to reoccur, certainly not all in the one game.
The All Blacks thoroughly deserved their win because they recognised opportunities and capitalised on them.
But it would not have taken a lot to halve the All Blacks' score and to double the Wallabies' tally.
If you subtract All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu's converted try, which was scored after number eight Kieran Read appeared to knock on, and add O'Connor's nine points from missed goals, the scoreline reads 23-all, yet one team played as well as it possibly could and the other was well below par.
While the Bledisloe Cup is lost for yet another year, the Wallabies are actually in pole position to reclaim the Tri Nations trophy.
That may sound loopy after such a disappointing defeat, but consider this:
The Wallabies will play a Springboks team that has many players returning from injury and lacking match fitness, at sea level in Durban, where the they broke an eight-year drought in South Africa in 2008.
The All Blacks, on the other hand, are sending a B team to South Africa to play the Springboks in Port Elizabeth the following week because of the physical demands of the return journey.
If the Wallabies beat the Springboks and the All Blacks lose in South Africa, Australia will be in a wonderful position to secure the silverware when they play New Zealand again in Brisbane.
