Western Force coach Dave Wessels has urged his Super Rugby team to start being stronger mentally to convert encouraging efforts into victories.
For the second straight week, the Force delivered a solid performance at nib Stadium limiting a dangerous opponent.
Last week the Chiefs left Perth with a 16-7 win and on Saturday night it was the Lions from Johannesburg who won 24-15 with the only three tries of the game.
But Wessels couldn't help feeling the Force deserved to win and that could have happened with better execution.
Despite a long injury list including Dane Haylett-Petty, Ben McCalman, Adam Coleman, Richard Arnold, Chance Peni, Luke Morahan and Ryan Louwrens, he isn't looking for excuses.
Wessels is challenging his side to be stronger mentally if they want to go from competing with teams like the Chiefs and Lions, to beating them.
"I think we've got a good enough squad to be consistently competitive at Super Rugby level, what we don't have is the experience and mental concentration to do it for 80 minutes," Wessels said.
"We felt that we did enough in that game to come away with a result and we're disappointed that we didn't.
"To my mind it's not a physical application concern, our guys apply themselves incredibly well physically."
The Force head overseas the next two weeks, starting against the Sharks in Durban and then the Jaguares in Buenos Aires.
With their Super Rugby future still uncertain, veteran flanker Matt Hodgson is looking forward to the chance to get away as a team.
"It's good timing for us and the energy levels will be up with a few of the boys having never been to Africa or Argentina before," Hodgson said.
"It's a good to opportunity to go over and try to play with the attack that we played against the Chiefs and defence against the Lions.
"If we put that together we're a formidable side so we just have to work on doing that for 80 minutes. We are looking forward to the challenge."
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