ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has backed the decision that sent his team into the Super Rugby semi-finals.
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The Brumbies were bravely holding on to a four-point lead over the Wellington Hurricanes when Ardie Savea darted towards the try line in the 86th minute.
ACT players scrambled to get underneath the ball and both teams celebrated as referee Nic Berry blew time off.
The on-field decision was no try, meaning the TMO required conclusive evidence the ball had been grounded to overturn the ruling.
After what seemed like an eternity of close ups and slow-mo replays, he ultimately deemed there was no conclusive evidence and Berry's decision remained.
The ruling secured a 37-33 victory and sent ACT into a semi-final against the Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton next Saturday and ended the Hurricanes season.
Luke Reimer was the hero, the substitute getting his hand under the ball and sending the crowd of 8878 fans at Canberra Stadium into a frenzy.
As the Brumbies celebrated, Savea protested the decision with Berry. The skipper was adamant he scored and declared he had grounded the ball.
"I scored it brother," he told Stan Sport. "I scored then he held me up. It is what it is. I'm gutted but honestly I'm just truly grateful and blessed to be here and play this game for my club."
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When pressed further at the post-game press conference, the Hurricanes skipper reiterated his belief the ball was grounded.
Wellington coach Jason Holland backed his captain, but rather than criticising the decision said his team had chances to close out the contest before the 86th minute.
"I suppose you just bite your tongue when journalists are asking you questions after the game because that's the way it is," Holland said. "There's not too much to be said about it. Ardie said we got the try.
"We've got to be able to control what we can control. We probably could have scored a couple of other times in that game when opportunities were created and we weren't quite accurate enough.
"It's pretty tough to take but you can't do anything about those sort of things sometimes."
![Len Ikitau and the ACT Brumbies celebrate Saturday's thrilling quarter-final victory. Picture by Keegan Carroll Len Ikitau and the ACT Brumbies celebrate Saturday's thrilling quarter-final victory. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GzY3iczng7SLWqVgHSV78t/7dbc667f-1011-4673-85cc-7bf092e9836d.jpg/r0_0_3795_2142_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Brumbies, however, had a different view on how the situation played out.
Larkham was confident from the moment his players reacted to the tackle and his views did not change as the replays were shown on the big screen.
"The boys were pretty confident when you talk to them after the game," Larkham said. "Lukey had his hand under it and obviously the TMO had no other decision when you look at the angles he was looking at.
"There was no clear and obvious grounding of that ball."
Reimer was the man at the centre of it all, some Brumbies fans comparing him to Maradona after the famous "Hand of God" incident at the 1986 soccer World Cup.
The breakaway had made a big impact since being injected into the match in the 52nd minute, scoring the try that pulled ACT within three as they mounted a late comeback.
Reimer also made a crucial steal with less than two minutes remaining, before coming up with the match-winning play six minutes after the final siren had sounded.
"100 per cent I was under that," Reimer said. "Ardie tried to play it off like he scored it, but I was definitely under that."
Larkham has largely remained calm and composed through the ups and downs of an eventful Super Rugby season, however his emotions were on full display during those desperate final minutes.
As the Brumbies repelled wave after wave of Hurricanes attack, the coach could barely watch. Ultimately, his players pulled through, triggering a fresh wave of emotions within the coaches box.
"From the box we're just screaming 'hold up tackle'," Larkham said. " No one's going to hear from the sideline but we've been practising that all year. We've had pretty good play with it throughout the year. We were hoping someone was going to get underneath them and hold the ball up.
"Our hearts were going a million miles an hour. You could see the emotion in the box at the end of the game with the banging on the glass and the fists raised in the air. I saw [Nick Frost's] reaction as he came up out of that and he was pretty confident and that gave me a lot of confidence."
Saturday's match was played in front of a boisterous crowd that got behind the Brumbies on multiple occasions.
Prop Blake Schoupp revved the fans up as the Hurricanes pressed for the match-winner and they responded with vocal support.
Holland conceded the travel worked against his team and lamented their inability to secure a home quarter-final.
"I'm trying to think about the things we can control because we can't control [the final decision]," Holland said. "Part of the battle around coming to Canberra is that the 50-50 calls don't go your way, so it's part of the battle."
AT A GLANCE
ACT BRUMBIES 37 (Ollie Sapsford, Jack Debreczeni, Len Ikitau, Luke Reimer, Tom Wright tries, Jack Debreczeni 2 conversions, 2 penalty goals, Noah Lolesio 1 conversion) bt WELLINGTON HURRICANES 33 (Kini Naholo, Ardie Savea, Devan Flanders tries, Brett Cameron 3 conversions, 4 penalty goals)
Crowd: 8878 at Canberra Stadium.
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