Michael Hooper urges Australia to be 'optimistic' after Bledisloe Cup defeat

Australia skipper Michael Hooper insists the Wallabies must remain optimistic despite losing the Bledisloe Cup for the 19th consecutive year.

Having started the Bledisloe Cup with a 25-33 defeat against the All Blacks at Eden Park, Dave Rennie's side entered Saturday's encounter with a must-win situation but went on to suffer another 22-57 loss which was also the opening game of the Rugby Championship.

Codie Taylor scored a double for the All Blacks while Rieko Ioane, Brodie Retallick, Ardie Savea, Sevu Reece, Will Jordan and David Havili went over the line once as New Zealand showed their dominance at Eden Park after having last lost a game at the venue to the Wallabies in 1986.

“We’ve got to have 80-minute performances and we haven’t put one together this year, that’s the challenge,” Hooper said after the game.

“One hundred percent we’ve got to be optimistic around the stuff we’re doing well. Because if we don’t know what we’re doing well then we’re clueless.

“We’re definitely going to build on the stuff that’s working nicely for us and start to edge out the stuff where we get hurt.

“We did some stuff that was out of character and when you come up against a quality team, which this clearly is, then they put you to the sword and we let that slip too much.”

The two teams will head to Perth for the second round of the Rugby Championship scheduled to be played on 28th August.