The Brumbies will play the Durban Sharks in a quarter-final showdown at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.

Earning the right to host a final is usually good news for teams given they pocket gate profits. But disappointing regular-season crowds have put the Brumbies on edge as they attempt to rally support for their in-form players.

The Brumbies have won the past six games in a row and have a chance to set a record for the longest winning streak in the club's history of they beat the Sharks.

"The low crowds aren't sustainable from a business side of things. The people of Canberra need to show their support for the Brumbies and their appreciation for how they've performed," said Brumbies boss Phil Thomson.

"We want to see people get back out there to support the players. We need the community to get to the game to help us out.

"There is a lot of positive talk about the final this week and people are realising we're playing some good rugby.

"When there's not a lot of positivity around rugby at the moment, the Brumbies seem to be the positive story in Australian rugby."

The Brumbies have to pay $75,000 to the Sharks as per a Super Rugby agreement to give visiting teams a share of the finals prizemoney.

The size of the Brumbies' prizemoney, however, will depend on how many people turn up to Canberra Stadium.

A low crowd would mean dipping into their own pockets to cover costs. But it is hoped winning momentum will help carry them to a crowd closer to 12,000 or 13,000 instead of the 6311 who turned up to what a clash against the Pretoria Bulls last month.

Crowd numbers jumped by more than 3000 last week when the Brumbies beat the Queensland Reds. The 9751 turnout helped the Brumbies avoid the lowest average crowd numbers in the club's history.

BRUMBIES NEWS

Crowds at all Australian franchises have been low this season, with the average dropping to 10,450 across all teams. The Brumbies' average so far of 8509 per game is the second lowest in the club's history.

Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle said: "Obviously it's a concern. It's a concern for sport across Australia really. There's a lot of codes, particularly in the Sydney market, are finding that it's quite challenging," she said.

"There's no magic bullet, it's about a lot of hard work.

"The conference formula is probably not ideal, it creates confusion and that's why we're going to a straight round robin in the new broadcast deal.

"It's a combination of working closely with the clubs, making sure we're communicating well the upsides with fans, and working with our broadcasters in Fox [Sports] to make sure they're doing all they can to help us, which they're really open to."

Canberra businesses and the ACT government have started to jump behind the Brumbies, with the National Carillon, QT Hotel and Canberra Airport turning blue and yellow to support the club.

The Brumbies will have flame throwers at their game again this weekend after introducing them last week and will farewell nine departing players, including Christian Lealiifano, David Pocock and Henry Speight, after the match.

Pocock was part of a group of Brumbies who visited schools around the capital on Wednesday to hand out tickets and there was a decent take up of a two-for-one 24-hour ticket offer.

But even finals matches in recent years have been hard to sell in the rugby union market because of fan discontent with the Super Rugby format and off-field issues.

"We've struggled this year to get crowds to the games and to get people engaged with the team. But I think people are starting to see what they're doing on the field," Thomson said.

"We had an increase of crowd numbers last week against the Reds and we'd like to see a significant increase this weekend as well.

"The guys love to play in front of a full house. If they could get 12,000 or so, that would be great. Crowds are a daily worry of mine, we just really need people to support the team."

Crowds at all Australian franchises have been low this season, with the average dropping to 10,450 across all teams. The Brumbies' average so far of 8509 per game is the second lowest in the club's history.

SUPER RUGBY QUARTER FINAL

Saturday: ACT Brumbies v Durban Sharks at Canberra Stadium, 8.05pm. Tickets available from Ticketek