Kangaroos prop Petero Civoniceva said he was embarrassed to be part of the team which lost Australia's proud record in international rugby league. The 24-0 defeat to New Zealand in Saturday's Tri-Nations final brought an end to Australia's remarkable record of 27 years without losing a Test series.
"It was pretty embarrassing to be honest," said Civoniceva.
"We're the guys who will be remembered for losing the first series in a long time. We have no excuses."
Australia have dominated international rugby league for the last 30 years, but produced one of their worst ever performances.
"It all just fell apart," added Civoniceva.
"We never built any momentum. We always seemed to be defending and when we had the ball we didn't take advantage of it.
"Our lack of execution and silly penalties killed us.
 | AUSTRALIA AGONY First Test series loss since 2-0 defeat to France in 1978 First series loss to New Zealand since 2-1 defeat in 1953 First time Australia have failed to score a point since 1985 Equal worst-ever losing margin |
"We have to cop it on the chin, regroup and try and win it back next year."
Winger Matt King said the pressure of maintaining Australia's record had got to the players.
"We let a great tradition down," said King.
"There was a fair bit of pressure on us with the record the Kangaroos had and we didn't live up to that expectation.
"We were dreadful. Everyone knows how bad we played, there's not a lot you can say about it.
"It was disappointing. It was probably the furthest away from how good we can play and they took full advantage of that."
Australia captain Danny Buderus blamed his side's failure to execute the basics well, although also cited some refereeing decisions which had gone against them.
The Kangaroos made 20 handling errors and only completed 17 of their 32 sets of six, while New Zealand completed 32 of 43 sets.
Consequently, Australia were forced to make more than 70 extra tackles.
"I don't know what the penalty count was but our completion rate was only about 50% and that's just not acceptable," he said.
"It's no secret everyone wanted Australia to lose to get the international game happening."
MMIX
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It's no secret everyone wanted Australia to lose
