The World Cup squad will be officially presented at the Ponsonby Rugby Club, where the mood will not be as upbeat as the players, selectors and public had hoped it would be.
The squad returned late last night from Brisbane and its 25-20 loss to the Wallabies. Yesterday was spent assessing injuries, recovering and debriefing the performance.
That delay meant they avoided the daylong fallout and hand-wringing which dominated the airwaves throughout New Zealand.
Loose forwards Kieran Read (ankle) and Adam Thomson (elbow) need X-rays and injury assessment while mental repairs will be needed on a clutch of others.
"I think they just had more edge than us and we suffered because of that," coach Graham Henry said. "We did not do the business in the finish."
In that concise summary, Henry offered a host of unexplained subsidiary inquiries about why the best side, bolstered by rested senior men who only had to fly across the Ditch, struggled in such a critical encounter.
In six previous campaigns, the All Blacks have never had consecutive defeats going into a World Cup. They have only had one other loss in the match immediately before a tournament, in 1999, when Taine Randell's side sagged 28-7 to the Wallabies in Sydney.
Otherwise they always had a winning momentum though not necessarily global supremacy - 1987 aside.
It is awkward keeping context about performances as sides jostle their players and form before World Cups. But this was a test the All Blacks wanted desperately, even if that did not shine through their messy first-half performance.
They wanted to revitalise the squad after the alternate side sank in Port Elizabeth against the Springboks.
They wanted to keep their foot on the Wallabies' throats, they wanted to send another authoritative message to the rugby world.
Instead the senior selection, the combination coach Graham Henry said was close to the A team, went the way of the others.
"If we needed a wake-up, we got it," captain Richie McCaw stated bluntly.
"We got back into the game, then lost it."
In the first spell, the All Blacks looked listless as the Wallabies began with an intensity and a rush defence which cut to the core of the visitors.
Halftime instructions produced a more direct approach which claimed two converted tries and a 20-all deadlock with quarter of the match to run.
The tempo was with the All Blacks before Will Genia reversed that flow with his match-clinching incision.
"It is frustrating," Daniel Carter said. "But we have huge belief. This is a reality check, though."
It was. The first half was the worst All Blacks response this season and will promote claims that, no matter the coaches' attempts to get them to think for themselves, they struggle in that area.
Centre Conrad Smith predicted the public response: "I'm sure there will be a bit of panic.
"But if we are any good we will come out of this and it will be a lesson for us to learn from."
There would be a stack of quality sides at the World Cup, Smith said, and the All Blacks needed to be on their game from the start, to turn things around and build.
Quade Cooper has escaped censure for the latest incident of his long-running feud with McCaw, quelling fears the playmaker would be suspended from the start of the Wallabies' World Cup campaign.
Cooper attended a Sanzar judicial hearing yesterday after being cited for kneeing McCaw in the head during the second half of the test.
South African judicial hearing chairman Jannie Lubbe took less than an hour to dismiss the charge, a verdict that will not impress the All Blacks players or management.
The scores -
Tri-Nations test
• Wallabies 25
Will Genia, Radike Samo, Kurtley Beale tries; Quade Cooper 2 pen 2 con
• All Blacks 20
Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu tries; Daniel Carter 2 pen 2 con
• Halftime: 20-3
