John Eales is intent on ending an unwanted record in his first and last visit to Dunedin as Australia's rugby union captain.

Eales announced last week that he would retire after the return Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations match with the All Blacks in Sydney on September 1.

But first it's Saturday's match at Carisbrook - where he's lost three times with Queensland in Super 12 matches - and where the Wallabies have never won.

"I've never been part of a winning team here, so it would be great to leave New Zealand for the last time as a player with a win," Eales said of his 85th test for Australia.

"Certainly from the whole team's point of view it's a match we desperately need to win and we'd love to win."

Eales, 31 and the most successful captain at test level, also paid tribute to the All Blacks despite the Wallabies' domination of world rugby for the last two seasons.

"The All Blacks are probably the team on a consistent basis that Australia would respect more than any others because we've played them so regularly over the years," he said.

"They have been more often than not the best team in the world. We're so close to each other. It is probably the rugby game each year that everyone in Australia stops and watches, the Bledisloe
Cup. "It will be no different this year."

The Wallabies come off a 20-15 away loss to the Springboks and the All Blacks a 12-3 away win over the same side in the Tri-Nations opener three weeks ago in Cape Town.

However, a lot of the Australian energy was spent in the preceding high-profile test series against the British and Irish Lions which the Wallabies won 2-1 after losing the first test.

Eales refused to use excuses for their loss in Pretoria.

"It happened because of a whole lot of things," he said. "We were a bit sloppy in a few aspects of our play. If we can fix up those small things we'll look a lot better.

"The team obviously has been going through a few changes, a few players came in, we had a few injuries and (coach) Eddie Jones took over the team, so you can expect a period of settling. But I don't think it was a hangover from the Lions series."

Eales acknowledged Carisbrook was a tough venue to score a victory as an Australian because of its parochialism and normally chilly weather.
But he didn't believe that his team would be disadvantaged by arriving late on Thursday.

"I don't think a lot of that (late arrival theory) is particularly relevant. We're a different team. We've had a much better flight
here than we usually do.

"Usually from anywhere in Australia it takes up to 10-12 hours to get to Dunedin."

This time, instead of waiting around for flights at different airports, the Wallabies took a direct charter flight from their Coffs Harbour base in northern New South Wales state. (Sapa-AP)