Michael Cheika gets ready to face the biggest challenge of his career

Australia coach Michael Cheika admitted that the upcoming Rugby Championship game against the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium on Saturday will be the biggest challenge for him in his coaching career.

After losing the opening game of the Rugby Championship to the All Blacks by 42-8 at ANZ Stadium, Wallabies are in a must win situation in Wellington, if they are to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup.

However, it is not going to be an easy task for Australia as New Zealand have held the Bledisloe Cup for 13 consecutive years since 2003 and to make things worse the Wallabies track record in New Zealand isn't encouraging either after losing their last 18 games in the country.

Cheika has been under a lot of criticism after losing the home series against England 3-0 recently and another defeat here on Saturday might provoke further backlash in the media and from fans back home. Acknowledging the challenge ahead, Cheika wants to use it as a motivation instead of pressure.

"Probably the biggest. It's a big stage and it's a big challenge for us.

"The criticism from the performance is very warranted no doubt about that and when there's a lot of that talk in your head you start to get weighed down by it. The players are feeling pretty terrible about it, so we've got to get them back up into a situation where that's driving them to do something better this weekend.

"I know a lot of people are going to think that the same result is going to happen and we understand that, so it's up to us to prove otherwise."

Cheika also played down the criticism surrounding the selection of foreign based players like Will Genia, Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper from France under "Giteau rule".

"I thought Will Genia was one of the players who did stand up in that game," Cheika said.

"Giteau played for about a minute or two so that's a convenient thing for people to say and look for a reason. The reality is that the Australian team didn't play well that day.

Despite the results not going in Australia's favour, Cheika is confident of turning things around.

"Since I've been here, win or lose, we've always been pretty true to our identity and that's the first time I don't think that we have - and we've got to make that right.

"Sometimes things go pear-shaped and it doesn't work out how you want it to and that's when you've got to stand up really.

"It hasn't gone this year how we wanted it to, but we're not going to go and cry with our thumb in our mouth back to mummy.

"We're going to get in there and fight and get ourselves sorted out and that may be enough. It may not be. But that's what we're definitely going to do this weekend."