A disappointed Wallabies team ruined their best chance to gain psychological advantage early in this year's Tri-Nations after failing to turn a convincing lead over the All Blacks into a victory.

The All Blacks ground the Wallabies down for a 22-16 victory after the Wallabies jumped out to an early lead, just as they had in Brisbane and Hong Kong last year.

The Wallabies went into the Tri-Nations opener in buoyant mood while the All Blacks stumbled through their pre-tournament fixtures against France and Italy.

Therefore, Wallabies coach Robbie Deans had his best chance of putting the Wallabies in a commanding position on Saturday as he build his team for the 2011 World Cup.

The Wallabies' lack of experience was also exposed which left Deans to fall back on talk of a "journey" and "moving forward as a group."

"It's a work in progress," Deans told Eurosport .

"We are clearly getting better and exposed more players (to international rugby). We will just keep going. It's a habit we have to acquire but it's coming.

"We obviously chased the game and tended to become a bit lateral, which is what happen when you chase the game.

"Other than that there was very little in it, so we are very pleased with our progress to be honest and looking forward to the next encounter."

Just in case the argument that progress being made had not been hammered home, captain Stirling Mortlock repeated the sentiment.

"I think it's really pleasing we are creating more opportunities and chances," Mortlock said.

"It's frustrating that we didn't take more opportunity of those chances. Our defence was really good. We created a lot of opportunities in attack, but just didn't finish them off.

"I think the All Blacks deserved their victory, but the feeling is we are very close and we have to move forward."