A "lazy' and battered Brumbies side face a week of soul searching after crashing 52-10 to the Crusaders in their Super rugby fixture in Nelson on Friday.

Up 10-6 early, the Brumbies were held scoreless for the last 59 minutes as they plunged to a third straight loss and second under new coach Tony Rea.

The Crusaders scored six tries to one and rattled up 46 unanswered points.

Winger Sean Maitland scored a competition record-equalling four tries and five-eighth Dan Carter landed his first eight shots for goal as he accrued 20 points.

Injuries were added to the insult of such a heavy loss with flanker Mitchell Chapman (fractured cheekbone), winger Henry Speight (suspected broken jaw) and hooker Stephen Moore (sprained ankle) all ending up on the casualty list.

The Brumbies scrum performed well against the respected Crusaders eight, but they were clearly outpointed at the breakdown and in the lineouts.

Some glaring missed tackles compounded the visitors' woes and helped build the unflattering scoreline.

"For some reason we were lazy," Brumbies skipper and five-eighth Matt Giteau said in his post-match television interview.

"We're talking a lot at the moment, we're just not acting on it."

Giteau scored all of the Brumbies' points, converting his third-minute try and kicking a penalty.

He pounced on the loose ball to sprint 20 metres and convert for a 7-0 lead.

The Brumbies went into decline after he was sin-binned for a 22nd-minute breakdown infringement described as "deliberate and cynical" by referee Garrett Williamson.

The Crusaders scored 10 points while he was off the field.

Replacement goalkicker, halfback Josh Valentine, missed a fairy simple close-range penalty and his sloppy work at the breakdown culminated in Maitland's first try, which gave the Crusaders the lead.

Carter kicked another penalty to give the Crusaders a 19-10 halftime lead and they piled on 21 more points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Maitland scored his second try 47 seconds into the second half, former league international Sonny Bill Williams stepped around Wallaby Adam Ashley-Cooper and Maitland completed his hat-trick.

The Crusaders' centre pairing of Williams and Robbie Fruean were again impressive, with Williams scoring his second try in as many weeks and Fruean scything down Ashley-Cooper just short of the home team's line following a 60-metre chase.

"We just dropped our heads and let a couple of easy tries in at the start of the second half," Brumbies prop Ben Alexander told AAP.

The Brumbies have a bye week before hosting NSW.

"We've got to look at ourselves pretty hard, it's not the start we wanted to the season but I think we'll bounce back," Giteau said.

"We've got to show a lot more character than that, that was really disappointing."

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