The Brumbies defended a narrow 10-6 lead for most of the second half but gave it up in the dying seconds of the match when Hurricanes No.8 Thomas Waldrom dived over in the corner to snatch victory after the siren had sounded.

"Our team did defend pretty well throughout the game, but this is the second time this has happened to us this year," a despondent Smith told SkyTV after the game. -

"The Blues beat us after the final siren as well and to come here and be beaten the same way in Wellington is pretty heartbreaking, but the boys will come back from it.

After some lean weeks in attack, it looked like the Brumbies of old in the first half as they threw the ball from flank to flank and generated consecutive phase ball to come up with a great running try to Adam-Wallace-Harrison in the 17th minute.

Winger Mark Gerrard was denied another five-pointer just moments later when he was adjudged to receive a forward pass before he dove over in the corner.

But the second half was a different story as flyhalf Stephen Larkham was forced from the field through injury and the Brumbies did not launch any significant attacking raids on the Hurricanes line.

"We've got to find a way to out these teams away," Smith said.

"We had a bit of possession and our build up was quite good but we've got to make those last passes stick. It was pretty hard tonight but we have to do it - hopefully we can turn it around for the next game."

Brumbies head coach Laurie Fisher agreed that his side paid the price for not capitalising on opportunities early in the match, but indicated that it was important to put the painful loss behind them and move on to upcoming matches.

"We're pretty disappointed but our key focus now is to win 10 [competition] points in two games at home," he said.

"It's a tight comp and if we’d played better we would have had the opposition out of reach with a minute to go. If you make mistakes then you keep the opposition interested and you'll win some and lose some.

"We've lost two, so we'll have to learn our lesson eventually."

Sportal