In the case of the Maitland Blacks last weekend, they went one step further and managed to do it a third time in their 35-27 loss to Southern Beaches.

"That's a minimum of 15 points right there, 21 if we kicked the conversions," a frustrated coach Luke Cunningham said.

"Seriously, they were over the line. On one of them there was a bit of pressure on the ball catcher, but nothing you wouldn't expect a first grade player to miss.

"As for the other two, the nearest defenders were metres away. You had to see it to believe it."

On Saturday the Blacks take on struggling Lake Macquarie in a match they will win. Yes, will.

Last weekend Lakes were beaten 102-0 by Hamilton - and the match was called off early. The week before it was 86-0 against Southern Beaches. In the opening round they scored their only points to date, going down 82-3 to Merewether.

That's 270 points conceded in three games.

So, without wishing to be disparaging, it's a match where the Blacks can focus on their own game, before stepping up against one of the teams to beat the following week in Wanderers.

"There's a lot to work on," Cunningham admitted.

"I'm not a great loser, but I can handle it if we've been beaten by a better side," he said.

"But we've lost two games in a row where that just wasn't the case.

"Against Hamilton we gave them 30 points start and played a man short for 20 minutes because we had two players sin binned, only to lose by six when we were finishing all over the top of them.

"And against Southern Beaches we bombed three tries, turned possession over 31 times in 80 minutes, and had another two sin-binnings to lose by eight.

"We're not being beaten, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. These are first grade players, not lower graders, and you expect some level of consistency."

It means the Blacks really need to string a couple of wins together.

"The last thing you want at this early stage of the season is to lose touch with the top four because it means you can easily find yourself in a dogfight over the last month to make the finals," he said.

Cunningham singled out centres Mick Taylor and Dale Clacherty as two of his team's best on a frustrating day.

The Blacks will bring back prop Willie Soe into the starting side after he has been training with he Wildfires.

The forwards were put under pressure from the big, technical Southern Beaches side and Soe's return should strengthen them in that area.