Thursday 30 August 2018 08:25, UK
Australia wing Dane Haylett-Petty has rejected claims that his team's back-to-back second-half capitulations against New Zealand were caused by a lack of fitness.
Having been in contention at half-time in both of the sides' Rugby Championship meetings, the Wallabies have conceded a combined 59 points after the interval, leading to a pair of resounding defeats.
Former Australia coach Bob Dwyer's analysis was that Michael Cheika's team are "not fit enough", but Haylett-Petty believes his side's shortcomings were more mental than physical.
"I don't think we're not fit enough, no," Haylett-Petty told Rugby Australia's website.
"It's something we need to go back over the game plan whether we could work smarter, not harder. I don't necessarily think it's a fitness thing.
"If anything, [it's] concentration, we let ourselves down and you see other teams capitalise."
The defeats to the All blacks have left Australia last in the four-team tournament, after South Africa and Argentina split their two meetings.
Australia face the Springboks next in Brisbane on September 8 and Haylett-Petty believes they must avoid overreacting, despite there being just over a year until the start of the World Cup.
"It's easy to throw the baby out with the bath water when you look at the scoreline but we actually did a lot of things right, I think," he added.
"We just got killed on turnovers and there's not a lot of teams in world rugby that will hurt you like that from your mistakes."
