NSW coach Chris Hickey admits he's at a loss to explain away his team's attacking impotency but still earnestly believes the Waratahs can make the Super 14 finals.

The Waratahs jet off to South Africa on Saturday buoyed by a swag of major player re-signings this week plus confirmation on Friday that Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell would join the franchise next season from the Western Force.

The Tahs, though, have slipped to sixth on the ladder after back-to-back defeats and face a succession of sudden-death encounters against the Lions, Sharks and Cheetahs to keep their title hopes alive.

With the points-free bye this weekend, the Waratahs could fall as far as ninth of the ladder after round 11.

But the ever-optimistic Hickey thinks his team can even afford to drop a match in the Republic and still qualify for the playoffs.

"Absolutely," he said on Friday.

"If you look at those top six or seven teams, they've all got to play two or three of the top six or seven teams.

"There's still a lot of movement in that table. What we've got to concentrate on is what we can control, and that's our games in South Africa.

"We believe that if we can win two out of the three and pick up two bonus points, then that's good enough to get us into final-four contention."

Sounds easy enough in theory, but the Waratahs are averaging less than 17 points a game this campaign and even Hickey concedes such a worrying strike rate is unlikely to get the job done in South Africa.

"We're creating opportunities. It's little things - catch, pass, things like that - that are letting us down," Hickey said.

"We're not turning those opportunities into points. I don't think it's an attitude thing at all. The attitude is very positive, very committed.

"It's just one of those things that's difficult to explain from a coaching perspective.

"So there's an element of frustration there, from players and coaches, because we feel we've been close for a number of weeks now.

"But, at this stage of the season, you can't be close; you've got to deliver."

Although the Tahs will lose further ground on the competition frontrunners, Hickey said his players desperately needed the bye.

"The latest bye in the competition and, ideally, we would have liked to have had it a few weeks ago," he said.

"Between the pre-season, the trial games and the games we've played, it's been 13 or 14 weeks.

"So we were able to give the players three or four days off this week and I think that's really helped us.

"It also allows us to get over to South Africa a little bit earlier and gives us a couple of days to recover before we play on the Friday night.

"The players know what's in front of them and, in some ways, you get away on tour like this and it's good for football teams. It brings everybody together and takes a lot of distractions out of their preparation."

Utility back Sam Norton-Knight will definitely travel with the 26-man squad despite rolling his right ankle in a training scare on Thursday.

"We were a little bit concerned yesterday, but scans last night showed just a grade one sprain, no ligament damage," Hickey said.

"He wouldn't play on Saturday but, given it's another week, he'll be fine."

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