Blues coach Pat Lam has refused to concede that his team's loss to the Stormers has all but ended their hopes of reaching the Super 14 play offs and has called for special one on one meetings with his players to try to get the campaign back on track.
The loss to the Stormers leaves the Blues in eighth position on the table and eight-points off the play-offs pace with five rounds left.
This weekend they host the Force on Saturday before leaving for a difficult three-match road trip to South Africa and then finishing the round-robin with a May 15 date with the Chiefs at Eden Park.
"We have to win every game," conceded Lam.
"We draw the line now ... we are on a down and we have to get back up." he told Stuff.
"But I'm very confident. I think even in this latest game we did some things that other teams might struggle to do and that's a good sign."
Lam says that the bad things his players are doing too frequently that he is finding frustrating and feels that it is the right time to pull in the players individually to get some clarity.
"Some guys might take one minute, some guys might take longer," Lam said of the meetings.
"As you go through the review you have to ask some serious questions of some guys and also teach them and coach them.
"It's all about truth - that's what we are about. And it's a two-way thing, it's not just the coach talking, it's the player as well.
"I'm gutted with the performance (against the Stormers). It's as simple as that." he said.
"It's another game which we blew and made easy for the opposition. That's four losses that easily could have gone the other way if we applied ourselves as a team.
"I don't want to paint everyone with the same brush because there are guys out there that were going hard at the end of the day.
"But errors - I'm not talking handling errors, I'm talking structural errors - allowed the intensity of the other team to come through."
On a weekend when just the Crusaders stood out amongst another disappointing Kiwi effort Lam did not want to generalise and question the mental toughness of the New Zealand players as a whole.
"Across the board we have young teams experience-wise," he said of the New Zealand franchises.
"As coaches it's about growing that. I think it's dangerous to say we (the Blues) weren't up for it because some players were.
"Part of the growth of this team is to make sure that we play as a team and it's a week to week thing."
Over the last month Lam has been loyal with his selections but there could be some changes for the match against the Force who will be on a high after their big win over the Highlanders.
Lam had some concerns in the front row after John Afoa was a late withdrawal against the Stormers and with All Black Tony Woodcock (neck) already being ruled out.
Charlie Faumuina's sternum injury early in the match meant the Blues were down to their wider training group stocks. Faumuina didn't train on and must be rated doubtful.
Lam is hoping that Woodcock might be able to return after he trained strongly on Monday as did midfield back Benson Stanley who missed the Stormers match due to headaches.
