Waikato fans will be punching various permutations into their calculators this week, but Brendon Leonard's sober assessment after their loss to the Bulls could dampen enthusiasm.
"We probably couldn't afford to drop that one," he said after the 33-19 loss to the Bulls on Friday, their third loss in asmany attempts at Waikato Stadium.
"It's certainly getting a lot tougher."
The loss sees them mired on 21 points, seven points off the top four with five matches to play.
To give some idea of the enormity of their task, in the past three years of Super 14, 42 points have guaranteed a semifinal spot.
The Chiefs faced a similarly desperate situation last year and came home with a rails run, but they did so with a team stacked with thoroughbreds. This year they have been cursed by injuries and it is starting to show.
By their own admission, they were hoping to hang in there with the powerful Bulls on Friday, forcing them into errors and pinching the game.
Instead it was the Chiefs who made a barrage of costly mistakes, with the South Africans turning a tight match through 65 minutes into a procession by the end.
"We wanted to mix up our game, use our kicking game to find a bit of space at the back and keep turning them around," Leonard said. "But we kept making the sort of simple handling errors that you have to eliminate."
Leonard can take some solace in the fact his game looks to be in good shape, something he puts down to consistency of selection.
"It's getting better," he said of his form. "There are some core skills I need to work on, but I've played every game and that's important. The more I play, the better I feel."
One player who is not guaranteed a place in the 22 against the Stormers is Jarrad Hoeata.
The Taranaki loose forward was cited after allegedly striking Flip van der Merwe after a brief melee broke out towards the end of the match. He will appear at a judicial hearing this afternoon in Wellington.
While Hoeata has been used as a bench player, coach Ian Foster can ill-afford to lose another body. Of his walking wounded, he said Sitiveni Sivivatu was likely to return on Friday.
