HULL KR stand-off Travis Burns has warned his team-mates to improve fast or face another mauling at the hands of Wigan.
Rovers face the league leaders in the Challenge Cup fifth round at MS3 Craven Park this Sunday on the back of two defeats, just five weeks after suffering a club record 84-6 defeat to the Warriors.
But after losing 32-24 at Castleford on Sunday, which was hard for Burns to take after they led with 23 minutes remaining, he admits Rovers' form isn't what it should be going into the crunch game.
"We need to go back to the drawing board and work out ways to fix the things that need fixing, because we'll be in for a long year if we don't," he told the Mail.
"We can't be leading with 20 minutes to go and then lose.
"We have to grind out wins, but we're not doing that.
"If we don't start doing it soon we will find ourselves chasing our tail.
"We need to complete our sets and get a better penalty count than 12-3.
"We aren't going to win any game when the completion rate is less than 50 per cent.
"We would have got beaten by a Second Division team with those stats.
"The last two weeks have been disappointing for us.
"If we play like we did at Cas, Wigan will put another 80 points on us."
Burns was one of a number of key players missing from the Rovers team that was
destroyed by Wigan just three days after KR beat Hull 23-10 at the KC Stadium.
Even with him in the side, he knows Sunday's cup game will be the toughest of challenges, but Burns knows KR are capable of causing a major upset.
"It's a knock-out game and I thought we played well against St Helens in the last round," said the Aussie playmaker.
"Wigan are top of the table and will be coming to us. But they beat us by 78 the last time so they'll be confident.
"We need a good week at training and we must try to forget about the Castleford match."
Asked what his KR side need to do to defy the odds and win, Burns added: "We need to stick to our game plan, complete sets and stay in the game.
"We'll be miles off if we keep doing what we're doing.
"I've been in this situation before, though, and you can't let your head go down
because that only makes things worse.
"We have to remain positive and work hard.
"I think we'll be in the play-offs when they come around.
"We won six from nine not too long ago and we'll find our feet and kick on."
