Brumbies coach Andy Friend will demand a more consistent attitude from his erratic side as he believes they can't afford any more losses if they are to make the Super 14 finals.

The Canberra based franchise suffered their third loss in six games, going down 35-14 to the impressive Sharks in Durban on Sunday morning.

The loss left the 10th placed Brumbies nine points adrift of the fourth placed Bulls, though they do have a game in hand.

"I believe you can afford to lose three games and make the finals and we've lost our three games now," Friend said.

"We've got to step up and make sure that we catch up the rest and not lose any more.

"The pressure is right back on us, but that's what you've got to do if you want to be the best team."

The Brumbies failed to fully capitalise on some second quarter line breaks and were made to pay by the ruthless Sharks.

The powerful South African side scored three of their five tries off turnover ball.

"We didn't control the ball as well as we should have done and they made us pay a pretty heavy price. They've got a very good defence," Friend said.

"We weren't able to put away the chances. In the first half we created a few as did they and both teams were reasonably solid in defence.

"In the second half we created opportunities in probably the wrong area of the park and they were good enough when they turned us over to cap it off."

Reviewing the Brumbies form at the halfway point of the competition, Friend felt his team had delivered a mixed bag of performances.

"There have been a couple of pretty disappointing performances where we didn't turn up attitudinally, there's been a couple of other very solid performances where we did turn up and we showed we can play the game," Friend said.

"There was a performance tonight where I thought we did turn up and were beaten by a better side.

"What we need to work on is being more consistent in our attitude and as the season progresses continue to develop our game style and game control and make sure that when we do create chances we've got the skill set that allows us to finish them off."

The Brumbies trailed 7-0 after Sharks winger JP Pietersen sprinted almost 60 metres after taking what appeared a forward pass from halfback Rory Kockott.

Impressive five-eighth Christian Lealiifano, who had earlier held up Pietersen over the Brumbies line, helped get them back on level terms with a sensational solo try.

With the game locked at 7-7, the visitors mounted sustained pressure, but couldn't convert line breaks by centres Gene Fairbanks and Tyran Smith.

A breakaway try to fullback Stefan Terblanche shortly before the break set up the Sharks 14-7 half time lead.

The hometeam dominated most of the second half, adding tries to Kockott Jacques Botes and impressive No.8 Ryan Kankowski, before reserve front rower Salesi Ma'afu notched a late five-pointer for the Brumbies.

Sharks hooker Bismarck du Plessis was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Fairbanks near the end of the game.

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