Cooper tells Wallabies to face the ugly truth Wallabies suffer at the hands of Springboks Springboks take an easy win against the Wallabies, soundly defeating Australia by 20 points in Cape Town on Saturday. PT1M13S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2ulxy 620 349 September 29, 2013 - 8:52AM The Wallabies have "run out of excuses" and must look at every aspect of their preparation and performance as individuals to avoid an embarrassing loss in Argentina this week. Australia fell to a 28-8 loss in Cape Town on Sunday with a performance that cemented their place in the bottom half of the Rugby Championship ladder and widened the gulf between the Wallabies and their traditional rivals South Africa and New Zealand. Five-eighth Quade Cooper, who was named players' player by his Wallabies teammates after the loss, called on his team to buy into coach Ewen McKenzie's vision for the side and stick together. Brute force: Quade Cooper and Michael Hooper tackle Willie le Roux. "We can't keep using excuses - we've run out of excuses as a team in terms of how we go about each week," Cooper said. We've just got to put it down to hard work, sticking together as a team, backing our coach, backing our players, and we've got to strive for more success. Cooper himself took time out with reserve halfback Will Genia to meet and be photographed with South African lingerie model Candice Swanepoel a few hours before the captain's run on Friday. But the Queensland playmaker, who put in an improved defensive effort and took a quick tap to set up Test debutant Chris Feauai-Sautia for a late Wallabies try, said every person had to work out what suited them best in preparation. "There's no right or wrong and we can't finger point and say this is how you prepare and this is how you don't and that's what you get with experience," he said. Guys start to figure out what's best for them and they'll learn from it. I used to think it was best to be out and about and now I'm sitting in the hotel more, watching more footage or looking after my body. I know what I have to do to be able to contribute to the team. Each player individually will continue to get better. Springboks captain Jean de Villiers tried to offer some solace after the Wallabies' sixth loss from eight Tests this year, comparing the Wallabies' malaise with South Africa's in the early days of Heyneke Meyer's tenure last year. Match prep: Quade Cooper with Candice Swanepoel. Meyer was heavily criticised for having no direction in attack and using poor support play, as well as lethargy at the breakdown. Now, well into the side's most successful season in years, Meyer has surpassed Nick Mallett as the most successful Springboks coach in the post-isolation era, taking them to a nine-game winning streak before last week's loss to the All Blacks. "We were in a similar situation last year, when Heyneke took over as coach, I took over as captain and we had tough games from the word go," de Villiers said. [It is] the same now under Ewen McKenzie ... They've had tough games and it's difficult to get the momentum, get your message across over to the team. They've had injuries along with that and that never helps, either. Unfortunately, that's the way sport goes and that's the way rugby goes. Sometimes you've got to take a couple of steps back to go forward again and I'm sure they'll be back at their best sooner rather than later. It was little comfort to McKenzie, who came into the role full of confidence about which style of rugby the Wallabies should play. "We didn't get the game right, we were 20 points off," he said on Sunday. As much as Jean is being complimentary, we're way off the mark at the moment and we have to keep at it. There are parts of the game that are improving but it's the totality of the game we have to get right. Cooper said the wins would come, but only if the Wallabies remained committed and upbeat. "What I can compare it to, from past experience, is the Reds from a few years ago," he said. In 2008 and 2009, we couldn't win a game; 2010, we won more than we lost - we didn't make the finals or anything - but then in 2011, we started to win those crucial games because of where the team was at in terms of experience, we started to gain that. You start to gain belief in yourself and start to gain belief in going to games knowing that you're going to win. We'll get there. It's all in due time but I urge everyone, it's not going to happen overnight. It's something that we've got to continue to be upbeat about but we've got to know that it's a tough process and it's something that will come, but right now it's just not happening.