Taking in the body language of the two sides after last night's Tri-Nations encounter at Telstra Dome, you could be mistaken for thinking it was New Zealand that had broken the Kangaroos' hearts.
As it was, Australia scored two tries in the final five minutes to steal a 20-15 win, New Zealand's Tri-Nations defence now in tatters after two losses from its first two games.
Despite the win Australian coach Ricky Stuart was far from happy, the late rush doing little to erase the deficiencies of the opening 75 minutes.
"We didn't lift our standard from what we set last week, that's the disappointing part of it," Stuart said.
"You're not satisfied unless you perform to the standard that you expect of yourself. "
We're setting the standard for ourselves, we're not trying to play to an expectation of other people."
"We've got an expectation of our own and the players are happy that they've won, I am too, I'm as happy as anyone that we've won because I much prefer to win an ugly game than lose an attractive one."
Skipper Darren Lockyer said the overwhelming feeling after the match was one of relief but also the knowledge that there was still plenty of work to do ahead of their next match against Great Britain in two weeks time.
"I guess we now only have to probably win one of our last two games and we're in the final," Lockyer said.
"Last night was a good victory but at the same time I think we probably took a backward step from the week before."
Kiwi coach Brian McClennan on the other hand was surprisingly upbeat after the match, despite the fact the Kiwis now may need to win both of their remaining matches to qualify for the final.
"It's disappointing to lose, we're all shattered, but in the context of it all we can see we're getting better and that's important to us," McClennan said.
"We're all pretty pleased that we improved from last week."
Feeds