The resurgent Brumbies booked a spot in the semi-finals when they beat the Free State Cheetahs 15-13 to break a nine-year finals drought in a dramatic finish.

The Cheetahs had a chance to level the score after the siren, but flyhalf Riaan Smit’s sideline conversion attempt hit the post and the Brumbies advanced to the second week of the playoffs.

It means they will travel to South Africa on Monday morning in preparation for their next match against the Pretoria Bulls at Loftus Versfeld – one of the most feared venues in world rugby.

The winner will advance to play in the final against either the Canterbury Crusaders or defending champions, the Waikato Chiefs.

The Cheetahs outscored the Brumbies two tries to nil in their match and ACT coach Jake White admitted his team had plenty to work on before tackling the Bulls.

The Brumbies are only Australian team left in the title race.

“We haven’t played our best and we’re getting results. It’s going to be tough [to beat the Bulls], let’s not kid ourselves,” White said.

“We’re flying now to the other side of the world and in a country where rugby is one, two and three as a code against a team which knows how to win.

“But we’ve been waiting for this moment and hopefully it all pans out. I’m sure – I always see the glass half full – that if we prepare like I know we can that we can win.”

Christian Lealiifano missed two penalty attempts, while Smith only converted one goal from four shots.

The Cheetahs almost sent the game into extra-time when they launched one last attempt to keep their season alive.

Playing in their first finals match as a club, winger Ryno Benjamin scored with 60 seconds left in regular time.

It left Smit with a difficult conversion attempt to level the score at 15-all, but his shot hit the left upright and the Brumbies celebrated their first finals win since 2004.

“We spoke a lot about finals footy and having to play 80 minutes. In the end we had to play 81 minutes,” White said.

“Taking on the Bulls at Loftus doesn’t get bigger [in terms of a challenge] for this group players. I’ve heard it’s going to be a sell-out, maybe 50-60,000 people there. It’s going to be a massive ask but we get confidence out of [beating the Cheetahs].”

The Brumbies failed to score a try despite dominating possession and territory.

They relied on the boot of Lealiifano (four penalties) and Nic White (one penalty) to keep them in the contest and edge closer to another championship.

While the Brumbies were well below their best, the win will boost their confidence going into a massive challenge against the Bulls.

They lacked the polish and patience to capitalise on their territorial dominance.

The Cheetahs were outstanding at the breakdown and dangerous in broken play, but the Brumbies scrambled to hold on by the smallest of margins.

Brumbies captain Ben Mowen conceded there was a nervous wait as Smit lined up the chance to send the game into 20 minutes of extra-time.

“You always worry when a South African is having a kick because they’re usually dead on the money,” Mowen said.

“Fortunately it fell our way. We spoke about being enthusiastic and out-willing them and at times I think we did that. It’s good to grab a win here, but we’re going to build and hopefully we can go all the way through.

“We just have to make sure we execute under game pressure. There have been moments we’ve done that well and moments we need improvement.

“We want to make sure it clicks, we’ve got plenty of good footy in us and our best is yet to come.”

The Brumbies will play the Bulls at 1.05am Canberra time on Sunday.

ACT BRUMBIES 15 (Christian Lealiifano 4, Nic White penalty goals) bt FREE STATE CHEETAHS 13 (Ryno Benjamin, Johann Sadie tries; Riaan Smit penalty goal) at Canberra Stadium on Sunday. Referee: Glen Jackson. Crowd: 14,020.