Just how disappointing was the result against the Springboks on Saturday night?

Right from the onset we were basically pushing the proverbial uphill. We were only keeping in touch because of Dan Carter's boot.

And once again it was our own fault.

Personal errors were letting us down, like the inaccuracy of our passing game and our lineouts. And our general play and positioning was pretty terrible too.

I think we only got within striking range of their twenty-two four times in the first half and that's simply not good enough.

We had no penetration, especially in that first period, and that's not going to win you a footie game.

Another area that disappointed me was in the kicking game.

I thought a lot of the kicks we put up were very poor - straight up and down jobs that didn't put South Africa under and pressure whatsoever and it just became a lottery.

In general I though we were very inaccurate in lots of parts of our play and that's basically been the story of this year - too many handling errors, dropped balls and not good enough at the breakdown.

Come the second half it got slightly better, but even then I though we were probably overdoing our hand in certain areas of our game. We just weren't penetrating as well as I thought we would.

The last 20 minutes or so weren't too bad because we were getting on the outside of them but even then some of the passing was behind the players.

But the main difference was we just played more accurate rugby in the last 20 minutes that we did in the first 60.

We managed to put something together by holding on to the ball and putting them under pressure in their own territory.

We were pushing for that late try but we never got it and I'm not sure if a win would have papered over the cracks anyway.

I just thought we were very flat considering the boys had been talking it up all week.

One of the few positives from Saturday night was the form our replacments.

When they injected Adam Thomson I thought there was a bit more go-forward and I thought Isaia Toeava performed pretty well when he came on too.

In fact it's probably the best game I've seen Ice play even though he was only for 30 minutes.

But, as is usual with any loss, the negatives outweight the positives.

The options we are using at the lineouts seem to be pretty poor. I'm not advocating for the forwards coach to change, but Steve Hansen's had the lineouts for the last 6 years and it hasn't worked with him in charge.

You need to bring in some guys that are lineout specialists like Robin Brooke who would make a big difference and help out big time.

The thing to bear in mind is the lineouts are lot of responsibilty to put on a young kid like Issac Ross who's only just moved in there.

Sure, he's got to wear it for a while when it's not working properly but we need to be looking at better and different options, like shortening the lineouts.

And there are some players who need to look hard at their game too.

Both Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu were pretty flat and never did anything to threaten their opponents.

We're really going to have to look closely at our selection for next week's game and the tour at the end of the year.

And the combination of Stephen Donald and Carter in the five-eighths never gave us the expected dividends either.

You've got to remember that Dan and Stephen are quite small guys. We used them as battering rams and if they were just going to take the balls up the centre we should have used Ma'a Nonu in at 12 instead.

I think Ma'a was a little wasted at outside centre. We're going to have to look at that again for the Wallabies' test this weekened because I think the next game is going to be twice as bloody hard as Saturday night.

And the sad fact of life is we'll finish bottom of the Tri-nations if we lose next week - and it'll be because the current All Blacks are the most inaccurate side I've seen for years.

Who would have thought that at the start of the international season?

And so on to the final home test.

Whether we come second or third in the competition we all still want to beat the Aussies. But the way we played last week I'd put money on the Aussies beating us.

I'll have my preview of the game up on Saturday but I wanted to share my thoughts on what the team should be.

By the time we get through the end of the year tour it's the younger guys like Adam Thomson, Owen Franks and Wyatt Crockett who will drive us towards 2011.

Some of the older players are looking very slow and lethargic around the football field.

We've got to do something different, inject some enthusiasm into the team.

A couple of new faces might do that because they're going to be playing for a reason - because they want to make a statement.

Cory Jane was a prime example of that. When he got on he showed he was hungry. He took the opportunity and ran with the ball and he was all over the place.

With Sitiveni ruled out I hope Hosea Gear will finally get his chance on the left wing.

I'd also bring Adam in on the blind-side flank in place of Jerome Kaino and give Aled De Malmanche a start in the front row.

It's about time he got the oportunity to show what he's got. And with Ma'a back in at second five-eights I'd put Isaia in at centre.

So what do you think? Who would be in your team for Saturday night's test? Should Isaia get the centre spot? Or should we persist with Stephen and Daniel?

Let me know your thoughts, I appreciate all the comments.