Western Force coach Simon Cron is adamant his side can still reach the Super Rugby Pacific finals, despite turning in their worst performance of the season in round-eight's loss to the NSW Waratahs.
Back in their home nation after a three-game New Zealand tour, the Force could not live with the Waratahs in Saturday's 36-16 loss.
They copped the first four tries of the game and trailed 29-6 before they finally fired a shot.
Cron had demanded his side learn lessons from their fruitless NZ trip and turn honourable losses into points.
But performance levels went the other way at Allianz Stadium as the Force slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat.
"That'd be our worst game of the year," Cron said.
"The first half we gave away so many penalties, we turned the ball over ... that'd be our worst performance.
"When we got the ball, we gave it back to them too easily. We didn't hold position or play any shape, therefore we didn't really test them defensively.
"And then just some 'rugby brain' decisions for us as a team ... we finally get down into their five-metre and one of our players decides that he can stand in front of the thrower, give away a short-arm (penalty).
"Getting rid of those kinds of things in our game is really important."
The Force head back to Perth next weekend where they will host the seventh-placed Highlanders in a bid to snap their losing run and start climbing the table.
But they have serious work to do if they're to make the top-eight from their current spot of 11th.
"We can definitely (make the top eight) but we need to put performances on the park and what that looks like for us is just removing some of that error in our game," Cron said.
"In the early games we overplayed a bit ... we would make a line break and we'd just try to look for one too many.
"But (Saturday's) game was not that ... we really beat ourselves."
