The Brumbies’ goal of clinching a home final is dangling dangerously close to the edge after they stumbled in Bloemfontein at the weekend, losing to the Free State Cheetahs 27-21.

They sit just one point clear of the NSW Waratahs in the Australian conference and the Waratahs and Western Force have a game in hand on the Brumbies, who are second overall.

One of the most concerning aspects is the Brumbies’ failure to fire in attack over the past three weeks, scoring just five tries. It’s highly likely the Brumbies will have several backs picked in the Wallabies squad on Thursday, and Toomua is likely to take the playmaking reins, while Christian Lealiifano, Nic White and Tevita Kuridrani are all pushing to retain their Test spots.

But the star-studded Brumbies’ back line has produced just two tries in the past three games.

“We’re not getting the rhythm that we want, a lot of our first-phase is getting disrupted, so we’re playing on the back foot all the time,” Toomua said.

“Unfortunately it forces us to kick or play through the forwards and we can’t really play with width after that. We need to really address our speed of breakdown, that makes it a lot easier to play. You don’t play well all year round, but we’ve got to pick ourselves up because the last three games haven’t been up to scratch.”

The Brumbies play the Pretoria Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday morning Australian time in what looms as a crucial match in the Australian conference battle.

Toomua is poised to take over the Wallabies’ five-eighth duties after incumbent No.10 Quade Cooper was ruled out with an injured shoulder.

NSW pivot Bernard Foley is also staking his claim for the Test No.10 jersey and was superb for the Waratahs at the weekend.

The Waratahs have adopted an attack at all costs style and have scored 31 tries in 11 games compared to the Brumbies’ 32 tries in 12 games.

The worrying statistic is that of the five tries they’ve scored in the past three games, three of them have come from forwards instead of a back line oozing talent. The one time they clicked against the Cheetahs – a well worked set move for winger Henry Speight – the officials denied them a try because of an obstruction ruling.

White is challenging Test incumbent Will Genia for the Wallabies starting halfback position.

“You can’t go wide straight away, you’ve got to build momentum,” White said. “We fought so hard to get down [field in attack] and maybe we need to cherish that a bit more. It’s a learning curve, maybe if we build more rhythm we’ll take more points.”

If McKenzie opts to stick with combinations for the three-Test series against France, the Brumbies could have the Test halves and centre combinations.

But Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper have been brilliant for the Waratahs as a centre pairing and there are a host of others pressing their claims.

The Brumbies beat the Bulls in Pretoria last year to secure a grand-final berth. The Brumbies could slip behind the Waratahs if they lose to the Bulls and NSW beat the Melbourne Rebels.

“It’s at the pointy end of the season where you do start looking at the table, things are very tight," White said. "We’ve had a few times where we could have pulled away, but the competition is so hard.”