Rebels captain Gareth Delve was positive that his team have taken considerable steps forward despite coming out on the wrong end of a 39-10 loss to the Brumbies at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

Delve was disappointed that his team fell away in the final quarter after pegging the home side back to 13-10 at one stage but ultimately falling victim to an inspired Brumbies showing that yielded six tries and secured their finals spot.

"It's hard to take in the moment and when you are out there it's bloody horrible," the Welsh international said. "When you wear the jersey you want to win every game and to perform and to make it even harder for anyone coming back into the team, but it's a process and I think we are building.

"We have shown in the last seven or eight weeks that we are competitive and that we can beat any team and that's something that needs to continue. It's a fantastic competition and we need to keep taking those steps so that, more often than not we are winning those games, and we can get to the point where even if we are not quite right, we can come out on top.

It's a situation that the Brumbies themselves are all too familiar with, having gone down the same path a couple of seasons ago, gradually building a squad capable of competing at the pointy end of the table and qualifying for the play-offs. And for Delve it's the example that the Rebels should be aiming to copy.

"We have seen it for the last couple of years and they have built [a squad]," he said. "In terms of where we are looking to go in the next couple of years, with the whole squad ethos of players being able to come in and slot in and perform to a game plan, I think the Brumbies are leading the way with that. Some of the youngsters that came on for us today, like Pat Leafa coming off the bench, I don't think we are a million miles away from that but today we were a little bit off and that was enough."

But even the Rebels best efforts couldn't cope with a Brumbies side that was in top gear in the second half, claiming four tries after the half-time siren to cruise to victory. And Delve admitted that the Rebels were undone by a ruthless home team.

"The kicking contest meant that when we fell off a few tackles just after half-time that we gave away a few tries in quick succession," he said. "You can't fault the effort of the lads but against a quality outfit like the Brumbies you can't afford to fall away off the tackles like we did, and when we did they flooded through in numbers and were pretty clinical."