Rangataua player-coach Rodney Voullaire concedes the proud marae-based club are now in survival mode, desperate for games against strugglers Waikite and Greerton Marist to roll around in their only hope of staying in the Baywide premier division beyond this season.
Rangataua were handed another thumping on Saturday, losing 49-3 to a resurgent Mt Maunganui, who poured on 32 unanswered points in a hopelessly one-sided second half at Te Ariki Field.
Fresh from a 90-16 drubbing at the hands of Te Puke Sports, the reigning Baywide champions who look odds-on for a 2012 repeat, Voullaire, in his first year at the helm, said the loss was another bitter pill for the club to swallow after a season heavily skewed from the start by player injury and unavailability.
The former Steamers flanker, who laced up the boots again on Saturday and played 65 minutes before taking a knock to the head and coming off, said Rangataua were down to bare bones just putting out a side each Saturday.
"We've got 13 players from the start of the season out injured - that's almost a full team - and the injury situation is just crazy. We're at the point we're pulling in cousins of cousins of cousins, we're hunting deep.
"I went down to our other field just before the warm-up today to get players from our reserve team. They only had 13 playing players and two eventually turned up, but the others were only young kids and you can't expect to throw them into Baywide."
The portents weren't good for Rangataua from the start on Saturday, with Mount second-five Danny Tonga crashing through flimsy defence before brushing past fullback Nathaniel Walker in just the second minute for the first of seven tries. Voullaire did his best to spark something, with Walker also showing moments of instinctive counterattack from the back, but Mount, after a poor start to the season, were too well structured, leading 17-3 at halftime and banging in five more tries in the second 40 - two to replacement Zane Butler - as they grabbed the chance to stretch their legs against minimal opposition, although they looked more potent when they did the yards through the middle, ditching the around-the-back passes and flash stuff.
Losing Ruki Tipuna and Steamers wing Jason Hona before the season even started was a blow but it was the injury carnage that followed that has put Rangataua in a desperate spot.
"There's a couple of Ririnuis hanging around that should be playing - we could really use Shane Ririnui out there right now - and the hardest thing each week is keeping the boys' heads up," Voullaire said.
"We're getting 15 to training, which for these fellas is good, and I'm hopeful that five or six of the guys who got injured right at the start are nearly ready to come back.
"We ... had a good preseason planned and guys didn't front up. Combine that with the loss of guys like Ruki and Jas' and that's left some big holes."
Greerton have a solitary bonus point in the bank after six rounds, while Rotorua side Waikite have one win and sit on seven. It's those teams Rangataua are gunning for to get themselves off the bottom.
"Every club goes through a rebuilding stage and that's where we're at, but we need to get ourselves ready for our mates from down the road and for Waikite because it's a survival situation we're in. We need to get off the bottom."
Opotiki caused the weekend boilover, scoring a surprise 41-9 win over Whakarewarewa, last year's beaten finalists, on the back of two tries from former Steamers hooker Dean Elmiger, with twins Te Amo and Te Hata Wibore also having strong games after returning from overseas.
Te Puke's unbeaten reign continued but they didn't have it easy against leading Rotorua side Rotoiti at Emery Park. Rotoiti led 9-3 at halftime and stretched their buffer to 13 into the last quarter. But late tries to Gideon Uelese and Nick McCashin, with McCashin converting both and also landing three penalties, lifted them to a 23-16 win.
Tauranga Sports' points differential was boosted with a 80-14 thrashing of Waikite, with Rhys Davies bagging three tries and Lewis Hancock and Jeremy Cave two each in the 12-try romp. Te Puna halted their slide when they ran in six tries on their way to a 42-16 defeat of winless Greerton Marist.