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While Noah Lolesio’s charged down field goal attempt was the ultimate decider in the Brumbies gut wrenching loss, departing coach Dan McKellar was fuming at a refereeing call moments before.
The Brumbies had the ball in Blues territory, 38 metres out in kickable range when Luke Reimer appeared to force a penalty with Luke Romano failing to release the ball at the breakdown.
The Brumbies players nearby shot their arms in the air in unison but Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe failed to spot an infringement.
The moment blew up social media and McKellar was clearly upset in the post-match press conference.
“There were a couple of decisions there that will be interesting to review,” McKellar said.
“Luke Reimer appeared to be well and truly on the ball directly in front of the posts. Did you guys see that?
“I saw Luke Reimer on the ball, surviving clean out directly in front of the posts.
“When you’re playing at Eden Park and an Australian team hasn’t won here forever and a day, you need a bit of luck, don’t you? And we just didn’t get that tonight.”
The Brumbies coach, who is leaving his post to join the Wallabies full time, also questioned the state of the game’s rulings on red and yellow cards.
He was without Test centre Len Ikitau after a ban and two Blues were sent to the sin bin for moments that could easily have been deemed reds.
“I’ve got 23 players and 15 staff in there [asking] what is the game doing around cards,” McKellar said.
“I’ve got Len Ikitau sitting in the grandstand for an accident last week – hasn’t been able to play, possibly won’t play against England in the first Test match. We had a guy tipped on his head, we’ve got head-on-head contact. One’s a yellow, one’s a red.
“And I’m not complaining just about tonight but as a game… Last night [it was the same] as well with the Crusaders and the Chiefs. What direction are we going here because players don’t know what’s yellow, what’s red. I don’t know what it is. How’s Joe Public going to have any idea?
“I sat in on Len Ikitau’s hearing during the week and to me there are just so many accidents that happen in a collision sport. I’m not sitting here saying Blues boys should have been red-carded or whatever but as a game, it’s really hard to follow at the moment in terms of which way it may go.
“Common sense, isn’t it? If someone throws a stiff arm or punches someone or eye gouges someone or stands on someone, throw the book at them. No one wants players getting concussed and that sort of thing but there’s accidents.”
The Brumbies charged home after being down 20-7 with two rolling maul tries for substitute hooker Lachie Lonergan. Lolesio failed to convert the first and his drop goal attempt in the dying seconds, which seemed premature with the Brumbies controlling the ball, was charged down by Blue Ofa Tu’ungafasi.
“We showed a lot of heart there during the second half, gave ourselves an opportunity to win that game, but didn’t quite ice it at the end … I’m just pretty disappointed at the moment,” captain Allan Alaalatoa told Stan Sport.
“The spirit in our team is huge, we knew it was going to take a hell of an effort for us to come out here and get the job done.
“We spoke about collisions, set-piece … our set-piece really brought us home there in the second half. The boys showed a lot of heart especially there in the last five or so minutes.”
Blues flyhalf Beauden Barrett was the dangerman again, running for 99 metres.
“I’ve got a lot of trust in the lads, we’ve got to give it to (the Brumbies), they could have easily run away with that one,” Barrett told Stan Sport.
“We knew we had to fight hard and work hard together to close that out.
“Those sort of moments (Tu’ungafasi’s chargedown) you’ve just got to be alive for and look for … his edge is exceptional and we needed the big fella to stand up in that moment.”