Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock believes his team can "easily fix" the problems that were on display during Saturday's embarrassing loss to South Africa, saying the Australians would bear no mental scars for the Tri Nations decider.
The Wallabies returned home today with just under two weeks to recover following their 53-8 flogging by the Springboks in Johannesburg.
Their biggest ever defeat left the Wallabies one point behind New Zealand heading into the final Tri Nations fixture against the All Blacks in Brisbane.
While comprehensively beaten at the breakdown and off the pace in the set pieces, centre Mortlock felt the problems could be resolved in time for the Brisbane clash.
"A lot of what we can control, our shape in attack, our set piece, our defensive shape can be fixed quite easily, I guess that's a semi-positive thing," Mortlock said at Sydney Airport.
Coach Robbie Deans said his players were still hurting from the loss, but Mortlock suggested they might yet gain from the pain they were suffering.
"If you were in the changing room you would have heard a pin drop, that hurt," Mortlock said.
"The guys hopefully will use that. We have so much to play for next week.
"I think everyone will be absolutely mentally where they need to be, in the right place.
"Only the group knows the feeling, but you've got to live with it for a while.
"From our perspective it's good we get a couple of days to recharge the batteries and get ready for a massive encounter in a week and a half."
Deans said he would not look beyond his current squad, though he didn't rule out changes to his starting side for the All Blacks clash.
The Wallabies will definitely still be without key lock Dan Vickerman, while centre Berrick Barnes was unlikely to recover from his injury.
In one positive piece of fitness news, Deans said prop Benn Robinson had been cleared of a broken hand and should be OK to play on Saturday week.
While critical of his team's performance in Johannesburg, Deans was keen to look forward to what he regarded as a great opportunity, rather than dwell on the sizeable defeat.
"It's a performance we're not proud of, but we want to be proud of the next one," Deans said.
He said the Wallabies lacked intensity and accuracy against the Springboks but had a week to recover and had a "fantastic opportunity" against New Zealand.
"We are in the fortunate position of having a final, a one-off game where we can turn our season into something," Deans said.
"It's the end of the beginning essentially and now we have a one-off encounter with everything at stake.
"One thing is for sure, we won't go in underestimating what's ahead of us and the other thing that is good, is I'd much rather go through that pain last week than in the coming weeks."
