“It’s a hell of a relief.”

Brumbies coach Jake White couldn’t contain his pleasure at the fact his side won’t again have to go into the final round of Super Rugby requiring a single point.

In a bonus-point victory over the Melbourne Rebels on Friday night, the Brumbies locked in a finals spot for the first time since 2004 with an unassailable lead over the seventh-placed Blues.

They also have a five-point, 118 for-and-against lead over nearest conference rivals Queensland.

That means to lose the Australian conference, for example, the Brumbies would have to get belted by 50 points in their last match to the Western Force on July 13, and the Reds would also have to beat the Waratahs by 70 points.

It’s safe to say that won’t happen.

The Brumbies have atoned for their lacklustre final-round performance in 2012 when they needed just a single point to win the national conference.

It ended disastrously for the ACT franchise, losing convincingly to the Blues while the Reds claimed a bonus-point win over the Waratahs to heartbreakingly end the Brumbies’ season.

“We just didn’t want to go through another five weeks of ‘We’ve got four points – we need one in the last game. The Reds again face the Waratahs. Let’s hope they don’t concede four tries’,” White said.

“It (would have been) almost a bit like deja vu.

“We wanted to go into this break knowing that we’ve qualified for the play-offs and we’ve done that.”

What’s better for the Brumbies is that their final game against the Force will be in Perth.

“That means we can watch all the Kiwi and Australian derbies unfold in front of us,” White said.

“So other than the Bulls game, who play the Stormers, we’ll probably have a fair idea of where we will be standing in terms of whether we can come third, second or first.”

The Brumbies will be sweating over the fitness of halfback Nic White for their final fixture, who is having scans on his shoulder following a ninth-minute injury on Friday night against the Rebels.