ACT Brumbies flanker David Pocock says "it's disappointing to come this far, but fall short", but the former Wallabies captain was just happy to be back playing.

And flyhalf Matt Toomua thinks the Brumbies have evolved, especially in defence, but they need to work out the reasons behind their mid-season slump to take their game to another level.

The Wellington Hurricanes ended the Brumbies' season with a comprehensive 29-9 victory in the Super Rugby semi-final at the Cake Tin on Saturday.

It's the same stage the Brumbies were knocked out at as last season, when they went down to eventual champions NSW Waratahs.

Pocock had a fantastic return from his second knee reconstruction and many think he's a clear favourite to reclaim his Wallabies No.7 jersey after two years in the international wilderness.

He was back to his ball-pilfering best, but Pocock was just happy to have put his injury woes behind him and be back playing rugby.

"It's disappointing to come this far, but fall short. It's just the way it goes. We can't change it now. I've really enjoyed personally being out there playing, it's a really good group of guys," he said.

With Pocock's return and the addition of Peter Ryan as defensive coach, it was hoped the Brumbies would be able to go at least one step further this year.

Ryan has helped turn them into the best defensive outfit in Super Rugby and that was the only thing that kept them in the game in the opening 20 minutes against the Hurricanes.

But Toomua said they'd also developed offensively as well - they were in the top four for tries scored.

He said a mid-season slump, where they lost four of five games, was the concerning part of their 2015 campaign.

Toomua felt they'd need to find the reasons behind it if they were going to go to another level next year.

He said top four sounded good, but with the talent in the squad they probably should have gone further.

"We've definitely evolved. The most notable thing is our defence to be fair, we made quite a few strides in that area with Peter Ryan coming in," Toomua said.

"Even in attack, we scored a lot of tries this year - obviously a lot of people say it's off the rolling maul, but it's worth five points.

"I think we definitely evolved, but we definitely had a mid-season slump which hurt us a lot and the worrying thing was that was a bit of a trend in terms of losing those close games.

"While we were only a couple of points off, the fact that we were a couple of points off a fair few times suggests we have to look at something.

"You win two of those games and finals becomes a lot easier, but the fact is we didn't so we better figure out why.

"We're close at the moment. It's a bit of a mixed season, top four always sounds quite good, but I think the quality in the team we were hoping to go a little bit further than this."

Pocock was unsure whether the Hurricanes would go on and win their maiden Super Rugby title, but they showed against the Brumbies why they've been the best team all season.

"We just couldn't hold onto the ball long enough. They were good in [defence], they turned it over at crucial times and then just counter-attack, pretty lethal," he said.

"That's been their game all season - powerful, very quick to shift the ball on turnovers, you've got the All Black centres, good forward pack.

"They're a good team, they weren't the best team for nothing, they showed [Saturday night] why."