The proud Brumbies are treating their remaining two games as finals after breathing life into their teetering Super Rugby campaign with a 24-12 upset victory over the Hurricanes.

Notching their first win over a New Zealand side since 2016 bumped the Brumbies up to 10th on the overall standings but they need to break into the top eight over the remaining two rounds to play finals for a seventh-straight year.

That’s a tall order as they not only have to beat two high-flyers on their home soil – the Chiefs and then the Australian conference leading NSW Waratahs – but also need other results to go their way in the battle for a finals wildcard berth.

They will take a lot of confidence from knocking over the second-placed Hurricanes in Canberra on Saturday night, notching a third consecutive win.

Coach Dan McKellar left no doubt about how the Brumbies were treating the assignment after they moved to 29 points and within striking distance of the eighth-placed Melbourne Rebels (35), who paid dearly for gifting two late intercepts for tries in their 31-26 loss to the Waratahs.

“This is our mini block of finals and we’ve won the first one (Hurricanes) and we’ve got two to go,” McKellar, who is likely to regain key players Allan Alaalatoa and Sam Carter for the clash with the Chiefs, said.

The coach believed David Pocock had developed greatly in his year away and that has been evident as the inspirational Wallabies flanker helped drag his team up the ladder after missing the first four rounds through injury.

“That’s is probably the biggest change in Poey that I’ve seen since he’s come back from Japan,” McKellar said.

“He’s always been a world-class player but he’s really developed into an excellent leader.

“It makes (Brumbies captain Christian Lealiifano’s) job easier as well.”

The Waratahs (39 points) are in the box seat to win the Australian conference, with home games against the lowly-ranked Sunwolves and the Brumbies remaining.

However, they can thank their lucky stars, and Kurtley Beale and Bernard Foley for their intercepts, as the Rebels dominated much of their AAMI Park clash in the absence of Michael Hooper and Israel Folau.

Coach Brad Thorn’s youthful Queensland Reds (19 points) will be playing for pride when they face the Rebels this week after succumbing 39-16 to the battling Blues as they were punished heavily on the scoreboard for two careless sin-binnings.