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The Wallabies are now the major threat to the All Blacks at next year's Rugby World Cup
The Wallabies have superseded South Africa as New Zealand's closest challenger and major threat at next year's Rugby World Cup, according to All Blacks star Jerome Kaino.
While New Zealand logged their 10th straight win over Australia in the last Tri-Nations match of the season in Sydney on Saturday, the Wallabies' performance gave their supporters more cause for hope following the drought-breaking win at altitude over the Springboks in Bloemfontein the previous week.
Australia led by 13 with 15 minutes to go, but conceded two late converted tries to lose 23-22.
Fatigue caused by a short turnaround following a long flight from South Africa and Tests in successive weeks against the Springboks appeared to take a toll.
Regular starting blindside flanker Kaino, who sparked New Zealand after coming off the bench on Saturday, lavished praise on what he perceived as an improving Australian side.
"The Wallabies have young players, keen players, that are willing to improve and they are improving," Kaino said.
"They have got a lot of enthusiastic players. I've seen them grow from 12 months ago.
"The Springboks, no disrespect, a lot of what they do is quite predictable.
"Seeing these Wallabies out there, it poses a new threat, just thinking on what they are going to present in 12 months time, at World Cup time."
Kaino pointed to New Zealand's dramatic change of fortune over the last year as evidence of how much a team can improve in just 12 months.
Since losing a third straight game to the Springboks, the All Blacks have reeled off 15 successive victories, just two short of the world record streak for top flight nations.
"Twelve months ago, people weren't really thinking much or saying much about this Wallabies team and all the new players that are in there," Kaino said.
"Nowadays a lot of these players are key figures in the Wallabies team and international rugby.
"Just seeing them improve and how much these young players are going to learn, from these tough times, it's going to be huge."
He described Wallabies openside flanker David Pocock as 'a menace', who was filling the gap created by the retirement of George Smith.
While Australian goalkicker Matt Giteau missed four shots on Saturday, All Blacks halfback Piri Weepu landed all five of his attempts.
Weepu revealed he had a disastrous practice session the day before, making only three or four of 15 shots before deciding to stop.
"Before the game I was thinking to myself 'I hope this doesn't come down to goal kicks' and obviously it did come down to that," Weepu told reporters.
"You've got to be able to kick under a whole lot of pressure and 'Gits' is pretty good at kicking under pressure and tonight probably wasn't his night."
Acnowlegements: © 2010 AAP
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