Playing the Brumbies these days is like facing a South African Super Rugby team, the Hurricanes say.

Except they come with extra bells and whistles.

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett says last year’s beaten finalists present an important measuring stick for his side in Wellington on Friday after starting their season with two losses in South Africa.

They showed improvement throughout a tour which began with a 27-9 thumping from the Sharks before conceding a late try in a 19-18 loss to the Stormers last weekend.

Hammett says the progress made will count for little if they fail to quell a Brumbies side that lost 27-17 at home to the Reds in their opener before dominating the Western Force 27-14 in Perth.

He gave his team six and a half out of 10 for their efforts to date.

“We’re not far off. Certainly that second game, we should have won,” Hammett said.

“We’re under no illusions how important it is to start well at home.”

He believes two games in the Republic are ideal ahead of facing the Brumbies given they base their game around forward dominance – a method that proved successful last year under their former South African coach Jake White.

“They’re one of the sides from outside of Africa who play a really forward-dominated game and have a great kicking game to match it from nine, 10 and 15,” Hammett said.

“But there would be a bit more finesse and a bit more intelligence from backline play to go with that.”

The Brumbies, however, will miss Wallabies star flanker David Pocock who’s been ruled out for the rest of the Super Rugby season with a recurrence of a knee injury.

Hammett was bemused by repeated questions on Wednesday over dynamic flanker Ardie Savea’s continued absence from the starting XV.

Savea is on the bench behind Samoan international openside Jack Lam, while Adam Hill is restored at blindside flank in place of Faifili Levave, who suffered a head knock against the Stormers.

Hammett says the size and physicality of the two starters counted in their favour while Savea is still building his frame to the necessary size to handle Super Rugby.

“Like any young player who makes the All Blacks or makes Super teams, he’s still learning, he’s still got things to improve on,” Hammett said.

“You don’t just put size on in five minutes, or even five months. I don’t know what the big fuss is all about, in time he’s going to get there.”

The other Hurricanes change is at fullback where James Marshall pushes Marty Banks to the reserve bench.