Eddie Jones will now turn his attention to the future © Getty Images

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In a tongue-in-cheek attempt to take some good out of Saturday night's devastating 29-26 loss to the Wallabies, one Kiwi commentator said things can only go up for the All Blacks, while it's all downhill for the Wallabies.

He is surely right in saying things will get better for the All Blacks, but suggestions the Wallabies are on their way down now that John Eales has departed the scene are a little off the mark.

Doom for the Wallabies was predicted when Tim Horan, Jason Little, David Wilson and Richard Harry retired last season. But this season they've managed to retain the Tri-Nations Trophy, the Bledisloe Cup and won the Lions series 2-1.

Joining Eales on the sidelines next season is winger Joe Roff, who is taking a year off to play rugby in France, and veteran hooker Michael Foley, who is set to retire at the end of the year.

The squad to go on the Wallabies' end-of-season tour of Canada, Spain, England, France and Wales will be announced on September 10. The team has experienced a smooth transition from Rod Macqueen to Eddie Jones and will hoping for an equally smooth transition when the new captain to replace Eales is announced at the same time. At least one player will be returning from injury with inside-centre Stirling Mortlock available for the tour after undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this season.

"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us," coach Eddie Jones. "There's a change in leadership with a vacuum to fill. It's an exciting period.

"My job is to make it easy for the players. We all have to know just where we are going."

Jones said the importance of leaders like Eales was clearly shown during Saturday's night dramatic 29-26 victory against the All Blacks at Stadium Australia.

"Our preparation was really good," Jones said. "And the focus has been pretty good.

"I think when we got to 19-6 up the guys started thinking about the win subconsciously and you can see that we lost our focus in that period of time. However, when we got our focus back we played some pretty reasonable rugby.

"It shows the ability and class of the leaders in the side, especially John. He didn't make a big fuss about his retirement, he just remained focused this week and the other senior guys also helped the rest of the team stay focused."