TWICKENHAM, London -- Australia coach Michael Cheika says this is just the start for his team and was left disappointed the coaches were not allowed to sing the anthem on the field before what proved to be a 34-17 defeat by New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final.

The Wallabies were at one stage 21-3 down but managed to pin it back to just a four-point deficit only for Dan Carter to put the boot into them late on. Cheika has been in charge of Australia only for 12 months but in that time he has transformed them into one of the top two sides in the world and he vowed that his team will push on from here.

When asked how the rest of the world can catch the All Blacks, Cheika answered: "You just have to stay at it, improve and keep testing yourself. We're lucky we get to play them regularly so we can keep on trying to improve.

"I know a lot of people didn't expect us to win tonight but you have to keep believing. You have to make yourself against the best and I think we've made good ground in that area. We need to keep growing. This is just the start, we're just getting going. We want to do really good things for Australian rugby heading forward.

"At half-time we could have gone home, you know, say we've had a good campaign. But the courage in this team will help us going forward and they wanted to stay in the battle and they did that. That's something we want to keep going and the more we test ourselves against the best, the better."

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Cheika said the leaked photo on Friday was slightly "disingenuous but was no biggie". And reflecting on the Wallabies' performance in the World Cup, he said: "I've been really pleased with the way we've handled things. We've been really honest with the way we've done things on and off the field.

"But we're disappointed tonight that we couldn't go out and sing the anthem with our coaches ... we've tried to make the best of it if we can."

David Pocock and Michael Hooper are now up for World Rugby Player of the Year and Cheika lauded his back-row options. "Pocock and Hooper are both outstanding players but they're outstanding people and that usually sets the right agenda for longevity in the game. Both of those guys are instrumental for growing Australia rugby."

Captain Stephen Moore added: "We speak a lot about putting pride back in the jersey. We've spent a lot of time talking about what it means to pull the jersey on. Tonight we weren't good enough."