Waratahs legend Michael Hooper has identified some basic fixes for NSW to resurrect their slumping Super Rugby Pacific season.
For the second straight year under coach Dan McKellar, the Waratahs have started strongly before losing their way in alarming fashion.
Friday night's miserable 20-17 loss to the Western Force in Sydney left McKellar looking bereft in the coach's box and Australia's supposed glamour club sitting eighth of 11 teams with a 4-6 record.
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The damning stat of the night was marquee player Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii carrying the ball three times for three metres in 60 minutes.
The damning quote of the night was from Force coach Simon Cron when asked if he was happy with his team's performance.
"No. It was a bit of a tough watch that one," Cron said.
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Imagine if the Force had played well.
"I've been in seasons personally where it becomes a mathematical equation," former Waratahs captain Hooper told Stan Sport.
"You need other teams to lose, you need to win with maximum (points) and all these other things to fall in place. And it's really hard to get motivated when things are out of your control. It's going to be very tough for them."
The 'must win' tag gets horribly overused but it's fair to put Saturday's away clash with the Highlanders in that category.
The Highlanders sit one point above NSW in seventh while the Waratahs are six points off the top-six playoff pace.
The biggest problem?
"Their forwards I don't think are creating that go-forward," Hooper observed.
"They're not running and then catching the ball. They're catching the ball and then starting their run. And for a defensive line it's much easier to pick up your attacking player and get them to ground.
"There's not as much threat there and because the Waratahs forward pack has some outstanding players – link players, connectors, big guys – but no bruisers that can just give you easy ad (advantage) line. So they've got to be a bit more creative.
"Right now that's not allowing the backs and the threats that we see out wide to get unlocked."
The Waratahs won their only title under Michael Cheika in 2014 and have cycled through coaches since.
Kiwis Daryl Gibson and Rob Penney were given a go before Darren Coleman and McKellar had a crack. All have produced losing records.
"You feel for the coaching staff, you feel for this playing group," Hooper said.
"I've been there personally as a leader and you think you've fixed one thing and then another cut opens up and you've got to try and Band-Aid that. You just feel for them at this time of the season.
"But that's what they do, that's what you're paid to do. You've got to pick yourself up and go again."
Rival Australian clubs with less resources will rightly have little sympathy for the Waratahs.
The no-nonsense McKellar – with a strong track record of success from his time with the Brumbies – was widely expected to have had more of an impact than he has.
Suaalii was virtually invisible on his return from injury at Allianz Stadium.
"No-one's touching the ball when you've got 32 per cent territory, all you're doing is defending and then trying to get out of your own end," McKellar said.
"So you get squeezed to death and bullied in and around the breakdown. I can't flick a switch and be like, Su (Suaalii), here's space, you've got to earn that."
The frustrating part for McKellar is that his team have posted victories over teams above them on the ladder – the Queensland Reds, Brumbies and Fijian Drua.
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"I've not even looked at the ladder and not even thinking about that, but I know when we're at our best, as we've shown sporadically, we can beat anyone," McKellar said.
"But the gap between our best and not our best is too big at the moment and that's where we get inconsistencies in and around performance.
"It's frustrating, we've got to have a look at what we're doing."
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