Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and his leading playmaker Matt Giteau have warned Australia can't afford to slip back into a boom-bust mode when they finish their Tri-Nations campaign against a hurting New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday.

The final fixture of the tournament looms as a battle for the wooden spoon, with New Zealand just one point ahead of last placed Australia.

The Wallabies ended their six-match tournament losing streak with an upset 21-6 win over South Africa in Brisbane last Saturday week, but the world champion Springboks clinched the title with a 32-29 victory over the All Blacks in Hamilton last weekend.

In their first season under Deans last year, Australia developed an irritating habit of following up a high class performance with a dreadful effort in their following game.

A 34-19 win over New Zealand in Sydney was followed by a 39-10 loss to the same opponents in Auckland the next weekend.

It was a similar story less than a month later when a breakthrough 27-15 win over South Africa in Durban was followed by a 53-8 capitulation to the Springboks in Johannesburg.

Both Giteau and Deans stressed on Monday the importance of breaking that cycle and stringing together strong back-to-back efforts.

"It's very important, more for the momentum for the side I think," Giteau told reporters.

"I think if we go out and play poorly or don't perform in Wellington, then the win in Brisbane means nothing.

"Obviously there is still a lot at stake for us as far as pride and building momentum heading into the game in Tokyo and obviously the grand slam.

"Now we've got our first (Tri-Nations) win, we want to build on that.

"If we don't do that then obviously it's very disappointing and that game in Brisbane was a one-off lucky kind of game."

Even the usually circumspect Deans declared it was "really important" for Australia to back-up their Brisbane showing in Wellington.

"We don't want to slide back or some of the value that we can take out of that outing will dissipate and we don't want that to happen," Deans told reporters.

The New Zealand-born coach returned to his cagey self when asked for his impressions of New Zealand's game against South Africa.

"It was a good contest. The Springboks were pretty impressive early and the All Blacks were impressive late," was Deans' succinct summary.

He suggested the All Blacks could start with the same midfield combination that finished the game in Hamilton, where inside centre Stephen Donald was replaced by Isaia Toeava, who moved in alongside Ma'a Nonu.

Deans is expected to name an unchanged side for the game in Wellington, provided winger Lachie Turner and hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau come through training on Tuesday.

He said both men participated in training on Monday, though there was little contact work in the session.

"Tomorrow the ante will go up in terms of the amount of contact ... that's where the critical test will be for both of those blokes, but obviously they're are a lot further ahead than they were a couple of days ago," Deans said.

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