However three tries in the last 13 minutes allowed the world champions to run out 42-10 victors but Brunel insists there are signs of progression ahead of the clash with the Wallabies on Saturday in Florence.

He said: “Our objective is to get closer to the level of play of the top teams for as long as possible.

“That will be what tells us how much we are improving.

“We showed our best side [against New Zealand], we tried to put something in place, to play the game in relation to the quality we have.

“In the end we were lacking physically, the thing that came out more than anything was the qualities of the team we were playing who were able to take advantage of all our mistakes and know how to be very efficient.

“At 23-10 we lost a lineout in attack and conceded a try, at that point we could have still caused them problems so that annoys me.”