Cape Town - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar says his side must "fight and believe" they can still resurrect their season and reach the Currie Cup playoffs.
The Bulls lost 34-18 to the Sharks in Durban over the weekend - a loss which leaves them rooted to the bottom of the Currie Cup log.
They were much better than against the Lions the previous week (a 62-23 loss) but were still firmly outplayed by their more experienced opponents at Kings Park.
They host the Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday - a game Pienaar says they simply must win to stay alive in the competition.
"You simply can't lose three games in a row and still think you can make the semi-finals," he told the Beeld website.
"I also don't want us to be out of the competition by the halfway stage. It will be no happy scenario.
"Therefore, we simply have to beat the Cheetahs at Loftus this weekend. We'll have to fight and believe we can do it, no matter how hard it'll be. If we lose three games in a row, it could become a very long season.
"We just have to make sure that things start to fall in place for us. We're often our own worst enemies.
"We're playing against ourselves. We're conceding so many soft tries, and it's those soft points that we give our opponents that cost us the games."
Their clash against the Cheetahs kicks off at 17:05 on Saturday.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do the Blue Bulls still have a shot at making this year's Currie Cup playoffs? Send your thoughts to Sport24.
The Bulls lost 34-18 to the Sharks in Durban over the weekend - a loss which leaves them rooted to the bottom of the Currie Cup log.
They were much better than against the Lions the previous week (a 62-23 loss) but were still firmly outplayed by their more experienced opponents at Kings Park.
They host the Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday - a game Pienaar says they simply must win to stay alive in the competition.
"You simply can't lose three games in a row and still think you can make the semi-finals," he told the Beeld website.
"I also don't want us to be out of the competition by the halfway stage. It will be no happy scenario.
"Therefore, we simply have to beat the Cheetahs at Loftus this weekend. We'll have to fight and believe we can do it, no matter how hard it'll be. If we lose three games in a row, it could become a very long season.
"We just have to make sure that things start to fall in place for us. We're often our own worst enemies.
"We're playing against ourselves. We're conceding so many soft tries, and it's those soft points that we give our opponents that cost us the games."
Their clash against the Cheetahs kicks off at 17:05 on Saturday.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do the Blue Bulls still have a shot at making this year's Currie Cup playoffs? Send your thoughts to Sport24.