THE Wallabies are kicking themselves.

If there was one crucial area they let themselves down in their loss to the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday night, it was their kicking game.

With left- and right-foot options at five-eighth (Matt Giteau) and inside centre (Berrick Barnes), they appeared to have this aspect of the game well covered.

The kickers executed well in the inbound Test series against Italy and France, but have not been as effective in the Tri-Nations tournament.

Australia played for field position in the first half on Saturday night and Giteau converted pressure into points with four penalty goals to give the Wallabies a comfortable 12-3 half-time lead.

But when Barnes failed to return for the second half because of a neck injury and concussion, and fullback James O'Connor limped off in the 45th minute with a corked leg, the Wallabies' kicking game just about fell apart.

Conversely, All Black five-eighth Dan Carter gave the Wallabies a lesson in controlling the game with his astute tactical kicking.

In the most telling statistic of the game, the Wallabies made four kick errors to the All Blacks' none. And that does not include the three or four that went straight down the throat of All Black winger Sitiveni Sivivatu, who was in great form on the counter-attack.

Some of the mistakes were extremely costly. Two minutes after a Giteau kick was charged down midway through the second half, replacement All Black centre Ma'a Nonu was scoring the only try of the game in the left-hand corner.

Drew Mitchell, who moved from the wing to fullback when O'Connor went off, put the Wallabies under immense pressure with a long kick that went dead in-goal in the 72nd minute.

Instead of protecting an 18-16 lead down the All Blacks' end of the field, the Wallabies came back to pack down a scrum 40metres from their own line.

Fourteen phases later Carter showed he was human by muffing a potentially match-winning field-goal attempt.

But three minutes from the end, Carter kicked for the left-hand corner and a moment of hesitancy by Mitchell led to winger Lachie Turner being penalised for holding on to the ball in the tackle five metres from the Australian line.

Carter stroked the ball between the posts for the match winner.

Barnes described the Wallabies' kick errors as "momentum killers".

"They are the little things in closing out games," Barnes said. "They certainly hurt you. We got shown last night we are so close to winning Test matches and that's all it is.

"In those first few rounds of the year, we were finding the corners and kicking well.

"I don't think it's a case of not working hard enough. I know we are doing the work at training. I'm not sure why it's not coming off at the moment."

Barnes is hoping to be cleared to play against the Springboks in Perth on Saturday after having a scan today.

But he could not remember the incident in which he got hurt.

"I'll have to watch the game again," Barnes said. "I was a bit dodgy. You want to know where you are when you are out there. My dad always says I play better with concussion. Maybe it's a blessing, I don't know.

"I remember us being up at half-time, which was good. A good start - 12-3 - we put ourselves in a good position. We just have to finish now, I'll tell ya."

At 15-6 with 25 minutes to go, the game was there to be taken by the Wallabies. It was the third consecutive Test the Wallabies have put themselves in match-winning positions against the All Blacks only to lose.

Asked how they could get over their second-half blues, Barnes said: "If I knew, we wouldn't be here, would we? You wouldn't be asking me the same questions. You'd be pumping us up why we got up. You just have to keep plugging away at it."

Barnes said the Wallabies should remain positive about their chances against South Africa.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html