Incoming Brumbies coach Jake White will arrive on Monday to find the Super Rugby franchise at its lowest ebb and reeling following astonishingly frank and damning criticism of players and management by incumbent Tony Rea.

Rea's scathing assessment that his side's season has been doomed from the outset by a lack of ticker in tough situations followed a dire 29-20 home loss to the last-placed Lions on Saturday.

It was the Brumbies' ninth defeat in 2011 and set a new record for losses in a season for the two-time champions.

"We are just a mob without any fight in us when it gets tough, even if we win," said Rea post-match appraisal.

"It has been since day one of pre-season, pretty much all laid bare."

Appointed after the second round sacking of coach Andy Friend, Rea didn't spare management either as he let rip after his steam sunk to a sorry 2-9 record with five games left in his tenure.

"We have just too many people and an organisation that makes too many soft decisions too often and now they're the bulk and the norm, it's in the wood now," Rea said.

Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan spoke to Rea on Sunday about his comments and said he believed they'd been designed to motivate the team after all else had failed and the coach would see out the season.

"What he was doing, and I have spoken with Tony today, he wanted to issue the ultimate challenge to the group and he did that publicly," Fagan told AAP on Sunday.

"They're quite regularly issued privately but he felt that privately wasn't working.

"He wanted to issue that challenge in the public arena that 95 per cent doesn't win you games at this level of football, only 100 per cent does."

Rea said the players lacked fight in tough match situations.

"(Using) smoke and mirrors we have tried to get it through there for a fair while but if it is not in you, it's not in you, you are not going to find it under pressure.

"To perform at the levels you want to get where you want to go, you have to be unconditional and you have to put yourself in places which are you don't want to go," he said.

"We have never been able to do that.

"Right from everything we go through, it is a charade really, the effort here."

Fagan said White, South Africa's 2007 Rugby World Cup winning coach, was aware of the challenge to revive the Brumbies during his four-year appointment and was arriving initially for a week-long stay.

"He (White) is coming here with eyes wide open," Fagan said.

"We have got a good group of players that are not playing to their ability.

"He was appointed to create change and deliver change."

Fagan said Rea's comments were to engineer a riposte from his players in the remaining matches.

"That means making some significant sacrifices and putting yourself beyond the level of comfort," Fagan said.

"He's done that and he's hoping that delivers a response."

Captain Matt Giteau said the straight talk from Rea was right.

"No one likes to hear anything negative but that's the reality," Giteau said.

"We can argue if we want but the performances suggest it's true."

Rea said Giteau's teammates had let down their captain by their performances in his 100th Super Rugby match on Saturday.

"They think they are trying to do it for them but didn't dig deep enough for him," he said.

"In many ways they have spat in his face a bit there."

Meanwhile Rea's player stocks, particularly the front-row, are thinning for their match against the Western Force in Perth next Saturday.

Prop Salesi Ma'afu was ruled out for eight weeks with a broken right forearm, hooker Huia Edmonds will be out six months with ruptured ankle ligaments and No.8 Ita Vaea is set to miss one week with a sprained ankle.

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