FRED Bulut believes Launceston need at least one more win if they are to avoid being sucked into the Regional One South West relegation play-offs.

A 17-12 defeat at home to Cornish rivals St Austell last Saturday means the All Blacks have work to do between now and the end of the season – and it won’t be easy with leaders Devonport Services next on the agenda at Polson this Saturday, followed by testing trips to Exmouth and Topsham.

“We don’t obviously want to be in that situation, but we’ve got three tough games now against top five teams,” said Bulut. “The big one next week is Devonport, so hopefully we can put in a shift.

“We need at least one win out of the three games because I don’t really want to be going into a play-off, but if that’s the case, then that’s the case.”

Having taking the lead against the Saints with a converted Cam Fogden try, Ryan Westren’s side were then undone as their visitors hit back with scores from Max Bullen, Dan Navas and Arthur Fletcher.

Although a try from George Hillson narrowed the deficit, the hosts were unable to find a winning score despite a dominant conclusion to the match.

“The first half was pretty much dominated by St Austell, which was a bit of a shame,” added Bulut. “They capitalised on our sin-bin, scored two really good tries out wide and that really put the momentum into the second half for them.

“Second half, we put the pressure on them in the tight and got the upper hand in the scrum. The forwards put in a hell of a shift, which is great because we’ve been working on our tight game.

“The disappointment was that we made a couple of silly errors – and we had a couple of two-on-ones and the ball goes down which was not ideal.”