ACT Brumbies can fix game to make Super Rugby finals charge, says Stephen Larkham

Tomane played for Uni-Norths in Canberra's John I Dent Cup on Saturday, but a low tackle caught him in the vicinity of his injured knee and he was forced from the field early in the second half.

He'll undergo further testing over the weekend and more will be known in the next day or two.

Tomane will join French club Montpellier at the end of the season and with the Brumbies' finals hopes in the balance a further injury could mean he's played his last game.

"We don't know yet; he could be all right," Larkham said. "As soon as the adrenalin wears off we'll go and have a good look and make a better assessment.

"He was looking good up until that point, pretty lonely out on the wing and wasn't getting much ball, but it looked like he was feeling comfortable on the leg. We'll have to wait and see. Hopefully it's all right."

Larkham was also positive his side could fix the flaws that pushed its finals hopes to the brink of disaster, and added they wouldn't be drawn into a preparation of worrying about the NSW Waratahs.

He pinpointed a poor kicking game and early mistakes as two of the biggest contributing factors when the Brumbies failed to fire in a 40-15 loss to the Auckland Blues on Friday night.

Co-captain Christian Lealiifano said the players did not want to finish a season of hope wondering "what if" as they prepared to farewell some of their biggest names.

The Brumbies are locked with the Waratahs in an Australian battle for a guaranteed play-off berth, irrespective of NSW's result against the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday night.

Scott Fardy will be monitored over the next few days after getting stitches under his chin, on top of his head and nursing a sore shoulder.

The Brumbies will wait until later in the week to decide on David Pocock's availability, but it's unlikely he will recover from a fractured cheek bone in time.

Larkham said his side was emotionally drained after a three-Test series against England last month and their preparation had been hindered by short training weeks.

"You can blame a lot of things, but realistically we've got to look at ourselves and turn it around," he said.

"That's the positive we'll have leaving Auckland, a lesson learnt and we're not going to let ourselves down with this last week's preparation.

"The Waratahs' situation doesn't change our preparation at all. The Waratahs have the Blues and if the Blues play like they did against us, they're a very hard team to beat.

"We can't rely on other results … we'll start our preparation now for next week and it's not going to be any different, whether we're chasing a bonus point or not. We'll play the game we want to play.

"Our start against the Blues was obviously not good enough. We have to look at the way we come into games, everyone has to look at themselves."

The Brumbies were blown off the field in the first 21 minutes against the Blues, conceding four tries and struggling to get any momentum in the match.

They play the Western Force in their last regular season game at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night, and need to win to have any hope of making the play-offs.

The Force are out of finals contention, but are capable of delivering a killer blow to the Brumbies' campaign.

With Tomane, Pocock, Stephen Moore and Matt Toomua leaving the Brumbies at the end of the season, many believe this year is the club's best chance to win a championship given the Wallabies talent on their roster.

"We've spoken all year about controlling what we can, and that's the game [against the Force]," Lealiifano said.

"We want to get back in front of our home fans and put in a performance we can be proud of. The rest is out of our hands.

"We want to make sure we don't have this feeling again … everyone knows that disappointing feeling. It's about dusting yourself, accepting it and moving forward.

"I've been in Super Rugby a while, what hurts me is knowing the capabilities of this squad and knowing how close we can go at the business end."

SUPER RUGBY ROUND 17

Saturday: ACT Brumbies v Western Force at Canberra Stadium, 7.45pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.