Having squandered away control of the match against the Pretoria Bulls last night to be staring at only their third home loss to a South African team, the Brumbies emerged 32-31 victors at Canberra Stadium last night, keeping their season alive with a bonus-point victory.

They now sit on the threshold of the top four when it looked for all money their season was over as they trailed 31-22 with 13 minutes to go.

Flyhalf Christian Lealiifano's try with four minutes to go was salvation of the most dramatic kind, an extraordinary end to a very ordinary match in which the Brumbies had shown how a couple of men missing can make a monstrous difference to a rugby union team.

The loss of lock Ben Hand to a hamstring injury at half-time led to a shocking decline of the lineout. They lost their first four in a row after emerging from the break and never got their act together again.

And without Mark Gerrard at fullback the Brumbies suffered a massive drop in the quality of tactical kicking, putting themselves under immense pressure and gifting the Bulls possession and territory when they really didn't deserve it.

Yet just as they had against the Canterbury Crusaders and Otago Highlanders, the Brumbies lifted themselves out of the smoking rubble they were in and seized five competition points.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times