By Darren Walton in Tokyo
November 01, 2009 The Wallabies have shift their focus to a rare grand slam attempt in the British Isles after opening their spring tour with a 32-19 Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks in Tokyo.
The Wallabies leave Japan on Sunday looking to move on after suffering a seventh successive defeat at the hands of their relentless trans-Tasman rivals.

"We've got an exciting opportunity ahead of us now," coach Robbie Deans said.

"This was our last southern hemisphere outing (of the year) and we have a great tour ahead of us, which we're really looking forward to.

"We'll be better for this performance.

"We're back playing rugby, which we hadn't done for two months, so that's a good launching pad now for us to push on to the UK."

For the fifth time in their past six Bledisloe Tests, the Wallabies wasted a half-time lead, this time a 16-13 advantage, giving the All Blacks a 4-0 series whitewash - the sweep also marking the first time since 1962 that Australia have lost four times in a single season to New Zealand.

"This was the end of our domestic season and for a lot of reasons we had a score to settle there, but it didn't happen obviously and we look at England now and get into our tour," flanker Rocky Elsom said after captaining the Wallabies for the first time.

"We're very frustrated because that opened up for us more than any other game this year but we just weren't able to take advantage of it.

"I couldn't fault the guys for effort. I was really proud of the effort they put in and the intensity they brought to the match.

"But it wasn't good enough for us, which is a big problem.

"Fortunately for us, we've got England to think about and they'll be looking at us as the southern hemisphere team that they'll be most likely to beat."

The Wallabies kick off their UK campaign with a mid-week fixture against Gloucester on Tuesday night, with Deans to finalise his mostly second-string team upon arrival in London on Monday.

They then tackle England on Saturday, followed by Tests on successive weekends against Ireland in Dublin, Scotland in Edinburgh and Wales in Cardiff.


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html