Pasilio Tosi of the Hurricanes. Photo: Masanori Udagawa
Analysis: The Wellington based side, who finished as top qualifiers for the finals last season, are languishing at the bottom of the standings with just one win from four games.
All Blacks prop Pasilio Tosi said the Hurricanes players needed to accept responsibility for their poor start to the Super Rugby Pacific season.
"The fact is we do need to start winning," Tosi said.
"The boys are really trying and the coaches are as well, but the coaches can only do so much. It's up to us players because we're the ones on the field."
Tosi had full confidence in head coach Clark Laidlaw's game plan and said the players hadn't been delivering.
"The coaches can only coach and the players play. We just need to get some cohesion and we need to play like how we train."
Pasilio Tosi dives over to score a try. Photo: Masanori Udagawa
Assistant coach Bryn Evans also backed the team's in-match strategies.
"Yep, 100 percent. We've seen glimpses of it. We just need to be more consistent at it."
Evans said the team were doing a lot of things right, but not quite nailing their execution,
"That and a mixture of decision making and not taking our opportunities," Evans said.
"We're creating a lot. We just need to be better at recognising when we've done the job and execute."
The Hurricanes had a lengthy injury list which included several All Blacks, but Tosi believed they still had the firepower to beat every other team.
Pasilio Tosi celebrates scoring a try. Photo: Photosport
However, he concedes ill-discipline had been one of his side's achilles heels so far this season (the Hurricanes had two players yellow carded in last week's loss to Moana Pasifika) and he knew they needed to improve in that area if they're to get back their spluttering campaign back on track.
"It was probably number one issue, giving away too much penalties," Tosi said.
"If we can get the penalty count down and keep the yellow cards to a minimum, then I feel like we could probably get somewhere.
"That's up to us as individuals and as players. When we give away that many penalties other teams are going to capitalise and they're going to score tries. You've seen that in the weekend against Moana. We let them into our 22 three times and they came out with two tries in the first half.
"So, yeah, if we can get the penalty count down, then I feel like we can get more tries instead of living in our 22."
The Hurricanes bench provided great impact against Moana Pasifika and Evans said the team had recognised the need to make stronger starts in their matches.
"Any guys we put on the bench, their role is to provide impact to to change the game.
"The players spoke about that this morning. Why can't we have that sort of desperation at the start of the game and that sort of intensity?"
"So that's something that we'll look at this week. The attitudes (of the players) is something we don't question, they have it by by bucket load."
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