The Brumbies arrived back in Canberra on Saturday night still licking their wounds after a 56-21 shellacking against the Hurricanes in Napier.

Hawera declared his intent for redemption after his 10-minute stint in the sin bin proved the turning point in another Kiwi demolition.

The Brumbies haven't won in New Zealand in more than three years and haven't beaten a Kiwi team in any match since round one last year.

But Hawera is confident the glimpses of brilliance, although they were brief, against the Hurricanes can set the Brumbies up to end a 14-month drought in trans-Tasman battles.

The Brumbies were leading the Hurricanes by seven points when Hawera used his foot in the ruck and was penalised with a yellow card.

The Hurricanes scored two tries in his absence to hit the lead and then blew the Brumbies off the park with a rampaging 42 unanswered points.

Hawera took ownership for the split-second error, but has promised to learn and try to repay his teammates when the Brumbies play the Auckland Blues next Sunday.

"I felt like I turned the ball was over, but I dropped it and tried to kick it back because I thought it was out [of the ruck]," Hawera said.

"It was a pretty stupid from me and the ref said it was cynical. It's something I'm going to have to learn from and hopefully rectify.

"I think I tried a little bit too hard when I came back on in the second half ... a few silly mistakes in there. At No. 10, I've got to be a little bit better.

"I was a little bit better with decision making but I have to be a bit sharper with my execution."

The Brumbies have lost their past two games but still sit comfortably at the top of the Australian conference after the first eight games of the year.

The club hasn't lost three games in a row since 2011 but faces a massive task against Sonny Bill Williams and the Blues in a Sunday afternoon fixture next weekend.

The Brumbies' loss against the Hurricanes was Australia's 13th loss in a row against Kiwi opponents.

But New Zealand-born Hawera said the Brumbies could build on a seven-minute burst which led to three tries against the Hurricanes.

"We didn't play very well [against the Hurricanes] but they really owned it in the second half," Hawera said.

"I think we can take a lot of positives. We played a good half of footy but we know you can't just play 40 minutes, especially against a New Zealand side.

"We're excited to be back home and we really want a win. Brumbies teams don't lose two in a row often so we'll look to rectify a few problems.

"We talk a lot about spark and enthusiastic when someone makes a break. We showed what we can do when we turn it on, but you can't play well and then take your foot off the pedal. We want to put in a performance our fans are proud of."

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said the side would persist with taking attacking risks, but said defensive errors needed to be eliminated if they wanted to beat the Blues.

The Brumbies were picked apart by Beauden Barrett, the reigning world player of the year, and made to pay for poor decisions in defence as the Hurricanes scored 42 unanswered points in the second half.

"We've still got to win every game. You get limited opportunities to get easy games in the competition," Larkham said.

"You can't expect to play against New Zealand teams and think it's going to be easy. It's going to be tough, that's part of it. We failed to find a bit of luck but didn't have the momentum we needed."