Moore: We dropped away and All Blacks punished us

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stephenmoore - CROPPED

Australia captain Stephen Moore has bemoaned the lapses that cost his side in a 41-13 Bledisloe Cup beating at the hands of New Zealand on Saturday.

The Wallabies were well beaten, conceding four second-half tries as the home side moved out of sight to defend their crown in Auckland.

"Any team when they play with that intensity and pace on the game, they're certainly hard to stop," Moore said. 

"I thought physically we aimed up for most of the game.

"There were periods there when we just dropped away and they punished us and that was the difference."

Australia had Quade Cooper sin-binned for a high tackle in the 47th minute in an incident that also drew a penalty try.

New Zealand pounced to exploit the extra man with two further touchdowns while the visitors were down to 14 and Moore believes Australia need to learn to cope better with those situations.

"The tempo went up, particularly when we were down a man," Moore added. "We need to learn from those periods and be able to operate a man down like that, if it happens again.

"It's the small details in these big games that make the difference."

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