Connolly plays down Wallabies' win

Australia coach John Connolly was not getting too carried away with the Wallabies' stirring 20-15 victory over New Zealand in Melbourne on Saturday night, but he did enjoy it.

Having not beaten the All Blacks in their previous five appearances and not held the Bledisloe Cup since 2002, Connolly could have every reason for being overjoyed at the Wallabies 20-15 win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

But with one Bledisloe Cup match remaining against the Kiwis, a Tri-Nations clash in Sydney against the Springboks looming on July 7, and the World Cup commencing in September, Connolly was trying not to get too far ahead of himself.

"It's a great night for Australian rugby tonight," Connolly said.

"But we are under no illusions. It is a one off, we are delighted with it, but we have got two big games coming up over the coming weeks."

Trailing 6-15 at half-time after the Kiwis had dominated the first half, Connolly was particularly delighted with the way his team performed in the second half, as they ran in two tries and kept the All Blacks scoreless.

"We didn't play very well in the first half. We scrambled to keep ourselves in the game," Connolly said.

"We had a good chat about it at half-time.

"We got a bit of momentum in that second half. We got some good ball from the forwards which allowed our backs to get on the front foot."

He continued: "It is an important win for us. We went close a couple of times last year, but we just weren't good enough."

Connolly's counterpart, All Blacks coach Graham Henry, was not making any excuses for his team's poor second half performance.

After Rico Gear crossed for a try in the 26th minute, the All Blacks failed to trouble the scorers for the rest of the match.

But Henry said that the Wallabies outplayed his team and fully deserved their victory.

"We have got no excuses," Henry said,

"We came here to play rugby and do our best and we just didn't take a few opportunities."

Although disappointed at losing the match, Henry admitted that things could have been different if his side had taken their chances in the first half.

"If we had taken our opportunities early it may have been a different result," Henry said.

Henry added that he hoped people in New Zealand would now realise that Australia are a quality rugby nation, and that hopefully his players can learn from the loss and be better prepared to face the Wallabies next time.

"Hopefully we will learn a lot from this particular fixture," Henry said.

"Hopefully it will be a big learning experience for us all."

"This side hasn't lost often and I think you learn a lot from losing. Hopefully we do learn from that."

Like his Australian counterpart, Henry admitted that being a World Cup year, there are larger fish to fry, and more important games still to come later in the year.

"It is better to lose now than to lose in October I guess," Henry added.