That is not the way Avondale are currently thinking. 

After winning the 2017 Illawarra Rugby Union premiership with an unbeaten season, the Wombats have been inconsistent throughout much of 2018. 

Some weeks they have been brilliant, others not so much. The one consistent trend, however, is that no matter how they have played, a round one loss aside, they have managed to find a way to pull out a victory. 

But now, with seven matches to go, coach Murray McDonald wants his side to finally kick into gear, starting with Saturday’s clash with third-placed Bowral.

“I’ve spoken to the boys about it, this is where we’re knuckling down,” McDonald said. “If you’re not at training, you’ll be going back to seconds. We need to start getting focused, you can’t win the competition at the start of season, but now we’re at the business end.

“We need to focus on our structure, gameplan and doing the right things at the right time. If we do make mistakes we need to correct them. We’re playing quality sides, Bowral are structured, well coached and they can punish us if we make those mistakes. If we can keep the errors down, we’ll be right.”

“We had a big session on Thursday night and went through our plays. We’re expecting a big hit out with Bowral at their home ground.”

The Wombats are preparing for a Bowral side out to bounce back from last week’s one-point loss to Shamrocks. 

To Bowral coach Gene Fairbanks, the loss was a reality check for his side and he expects his troops to return to form on Saturday.

“It will be a good rebound match for us,” Fairbanks said. “We were probably getting a little too sure of ourselves. We faced a tough Shamrocks team who defended really well and shook us up. You never like to lose, but maybe it was one we needed.

“We’ve just gone back to working on our basics this week. The core of our game is quite basic, so we’ve focused on that and trying to minimise our errors.”

The Avondale season has been typified by flashes of brilliance followed by lulls in which they allow their opponents back into matches. 

This was no clearer than three weeks ago when the Wombats saw a 24-0 halftime lead over Uni quickly evaporate, before they knuckled down and held on for a 24-17 victory. 

“We Just switch off at times,” McDonald said. “We go really well and then switch off. We need them to stay switched on for the whole match. Defensively we’ve been pretty good throughout the last four to five weeks, we just need to fix those times we do switch off.”

In other matches this weekend, Vikings will put their six-match winning streak on the line against University. Shamrocks will seek to extend their mid-season resurgence against Camden, Tech Tahs will host Shoalhaven and Kiama will travel up to Campbelltown.