Ashley-Cooper, who has returned for Australia to face the All Blacks after missing the June series against England, told reporters before jetting off to Wellington he might run into problems getting time away from his French club.

Under World Rugby's regulation nine, overseas clubs must release players for Test matches that fall within international windows, however Ashley-Cooper said bridges would have to be crossed after Saturday's clash to ensure he can stick around for upcoming games in Brisbane, Perth, South Africa and London.

European clubs have been playing hard-ball with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and the ARU because they want to utilise their contracted stars as much as possible.

"With the European-based players like myself, that's an ongoing conversation that I'm having with my club president back in France and [Michael] Cheik[a] here so we'll review that after this weekend," Ashley-Cooper said. "From the start the initial discussions was with Cheik that I was coming back for the first two Tests and then it was going to be an ongoing conversation, so it was pretty open at the start but that's how it commenced.

"It [regulation nine] was a new rule that was brought in last year. I agreed to terms with my club in Bordeaux prior to those rules coming in. I've always wanted to put my hand up to play for my country so at this stage it's tough to put it all into detail, it's about having those open conversations moving forward."

Ashley-Cooper was one of the better performing Wallabies players during their 42-8 loss to the All Blacks in the Bledisloe opener in Sydney.

His name has been tossed up this week as a possible candidate to fill the void at inside centre left by fellow European-based star Matt Giteau, who was ruled out of this weekend's game due to a syndesmosis injury.

Asked whether he had stated his intention to move into the midfield from the wing, Ashley-Cooper said: "I haven't put my hand up to play anywhere, it's just a matter of playing. I will play anywhere in the back line as long as there's a number on my back but we haven't gone into those discussions yet."

Critics have questioned Cheika's decision to bring back a foreign legion of players for the series against New Zealand, saying it prevents a youngster crop of upcoming stars gaining valuable experience.

Earlier this month Ashley-Cooper responded to a Fairfax column written by Spiro Zavos reiterating this point of blooding young talent. He tweeted: "Maybe some young journo's (sic) "should" be given an opportunity to take your column in SMH? or u prefer they earn that gig too?"

It clearly struck a nerve and even after a painful 34-point defeat in Sydney, Ashley-Cooper said he was more motivated than ever to prove the critics wrong.

"Criticism is always going to be there, you've just got to be able to put it behind you and prove those critics wrong, which I've always enjoyed doing," Ashley-Cooper said. "We want to prove everyone wrong."

Australia departed for Wellington on Wednesday evening knowing they will need to put in a monumental effort to go from suffering a record defeat on home soil to breaking a 15-year drought against the All Blacks in New Zealand.

"You've just got to be able to put that behind you," Ashley-Cooper said. "We were probably a little rattled from the start with those key injuries and we didn't adjust like we should have.

"It's just about backing our system. There was a lot of errors in the game where we just didn't trust our systems both in attack and defence and we've reviewed that and we've had some home truths. It's about remaining positive and going out there to win this weekend."