Highlanders captain Jimmy Cowan has leapt to the defence of his side's coaching staff, saying the players had to take responsibility for poor performances.
The Highlanders remain in 11th position in the Super 14 after slumping to their sixth loss of the season, 27-21 to the Chiefs, in Mt Maunganui on Saturday night.
It was a tough loss for the Highlanders to stomach.
They were trailing by six points with six minutes to play when replacement flanker Tim Boys dropped the ball from a pass with the line open 10m in front of him.
Cowan said the players had to execute properly the plans the coaching staff developed.
"It is not the coaches' fault. It is us as players. It is very frustrating for him [coach Glenn Moore] and the coaching staff," Cowan said after the game.
"It is something they practise and exercise into us during the week and we come up here and don't execute it. It is us as players. Next week and the rest of the campaign, the onus is on individuals to get it right.
"It should not take the coaches to get us up. We need to practise that and finish that."
Cowan said an inability to nail chances had bugged the team the whole year.
"It cost us against the Crusaders, it cost us against the Blues and again tonight we just didn't put that final pass away and it has cost us.
"Look at the previous games - same thing, same again. We need to look at ourselves again and try and fix that matter. If we don't fix it, it is going to be recurring.
"We are all professional athletes and it is just not acceptable at this level. That was the turning of the game. Six to seven minutes to go and that could have been the final nail in the coffin."
Moore said the spilled pass was the difference between the sides, and such opportunities had to be taken.
"Near the end of the game, we had one or two chances and didn't take them. We paid the price for a simple error," he said.
He was pleased with the performance of his forward pack.
The Highlanders had identified and successfully targeted some weaknesses in the Chiefs scrum.
The Chiefs scored 17 points in the first 20 minutes of the second half, and Moore said the Highlanders were under pressure during that period, partly due to poor receiving of kick-offs.
Moore, who guided the Highlanders to 11th in each of his first two seasons, acknowledged his team was enduring a difficult season.
While there was progress, it was not happening quickly enough.
With questions over his future, Moore pointed to Chiefs coach Ian Foster, who survived some difficult early seasons in his role.
"I was talking to Fos [Foster] and he said you've got to stay believing in yourself and believing in what you're trying to build.
"There are improvements happening, not as fast as we would want, obviously. But it goes with the professional era that people are going to have a crack at you in the media.
"I don't personally read it myself. But you know it is there, your kids know it is there. But it's bloody tough, and you've got to tough it out."
Foster was satisfied with his side's win, and the inside back pairing of Stephen Donald and Mike Delany.
The win came at a cost, though.
Captain Mils Muliaina broke his right thumb when he tackled Kendrick Lynn in the lead-up to Fetu'u Vainikolo's try, late in the first half.
The All Black fullback will be out for three to six weeks, depending on the severity of the break, which will be X-rayed today.
