Captain Dave Dennis delivered that blunt message to his team after the Waratahs' abysmal 21-13 Anzac Day loss to New Zealand strugglers the Blues.

Dennis said his side would see their finals place quickly ripped out from under them and end up mid-table if they did not stop coughing up ball in attack.

"I said to the boys after the game that we'll end up the same as last year, won eight, lost eight, because we're up and down with our consistency," he said.

"Some teams won't punish you - last week we turned over too much ball but we hustled well in [defence], where tonight it just hurt us.

"We're going to face that moving forward, for every team in this [competition], if you give them easy ball they're going to hurt us."

The Waratahs were ranked fourth going into the round but now have four losses against their five wins, with one bye week still to come.

They have strung two wins together just once this season and have seven games left, four of which are home fixtures, in the regular round.

"We need to be better or we'll end up mid-table," Dennis said.

"We're talking about having a winning attitude and a winning culture, and that isn't how you do it."

The Waratahs went into the break trailing by five but not even a dressing-room plea to "hold on to the ball" could stop experienced players - many of them Wallabies - from throwing away possession.

"The reality is, nine out of 10 times you should hold onto the ball anyway, maybe one out of 10 you offload," Dennis said.

"But at this stage we're thinking with that attacking mindset that you can offload every time you carry the ball and the reality is you can't."