Robbie Deans was unimpressed by the Wallabies' poor discipline in Cape Town © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Robbie Deans | Stirling Mortlock

Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: Australia

Robbie Deans has threatened to wield the axe after Australia's ill-disciplined performance in their defeat to the South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.

The Wallabies' coach has also criticised his side's competitiveness at the lineout during their 29-17 loss at Newlands, insisting that they 'froze' under pressure. Australia sit bottom of the table after losing their opening two Tri-Nations fixtures and the former Crusaders boss insists that their position will not improve unless they eradicate key mistakes.

"One was obviously the lineout and the other was discipline," Deans told AAP. "That's the second instance of that, so until we get that right we are not going to prevail in this competition because you just don't get given results when playing against the All Blacks and Springboks.

"We essentially froze and that's what pressure does to you. We know that they're a capable lineout and they create doubts in your own mind through their presence and history of performance in that area. You've got the two best locks (Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha) in the world and also height at the back in (Pierre) Spies, so that just adds a little bit of pressure.

"But the key is to master ourselves before we master our circumstance. A lot of it is still in our own thinking, until we master that, we won't give ourselves the best opportunity of mastering our opponent."

Deans will be without skipper Stirling Mortlock for the rest of the tournament due to a knee injury and will not have been pleased that two of his most senior players, fly-half Matt Giteau and flanker George Smith, joined Richard Brown in receiving a yellow-card during their latest reverse.

The Wallabies conceded 28 penalties, yielding a 24-point haul for Springbok fly-half Morne Steyn.

"If you keep going back to that trough and don't address that habit, there's only one other way of addressing it, that's to remove those that are drinking from that trough," Deans said.