Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea is adamant he got the ball to the line after Luke Reimer and the ACT Brumbies held on for a 37-33 win in Canberra.
Savea engineered a fierce-second half comeback for the visitors, scoring just after the break to start a run of 17 unanswered points.
Catch every game of Super Rugby Pacific LIVE on Stan Sport. Start your Free Sport Trial Now
As the Hurricanes attacked the Brumbies' line in the 84th minute, Savea dove for the line and thought he had scored, only for the TMO to rule Luke Reimer had got his left hand under the ball.
Referee Nic Berry sent the decision upstairs with a soft call of held up and with no clear angle showing the ball on the ground, the call stood to the delight of the Brumbies faithful.
“(I got) left hand under, strong side," Reimer said after the game.
"It was disappointing last year and we’ve built on that. We can’t let ourselves into that position in the first place. We just had to get that ball back in the last nine minutes and we didn’t want another repeat.”
It's the second time in 12 months Reimer has found himself involved in a crucial moment late in a final.
He looked to have won a late breakdown penalty against the Blues in last year's semi-final, which wasn't called.
“From the box, we’re just screaming ‘hold up tackle’…we’ve been practising that all year and had pretty good pay. We were hoping someone would get underneath them and hold the ball," coach Stephen Larkham said.
“Our hearts were going a million miles a hour. You could see the emotion in the box at the end of the game with the raging on the glass and the fists raised in the air.
“The boys were pretty confident after the game Lukey had has hand under it and obviously the TMO had no other decision with the angles he was looking it. There is no clear and obvious grounding off the ball.”
“It’s a 15 man effort at the end but it just takes one guy to get his hand under the ball to do something special," fullback Tom Wright added
“He gets unrewarded on the TV with a lot of highlights but he’s our go-to finisher and he did it again.”
It left Savea emotional after the game, confident he had got some part of the ball over the line.
"I scored it, brother," Savea told Stan Sport
"Initially I scored it and then he held me up. But hey, it is what it is.
“I'm gutted, but honestly, brother, I'm just really grateful and blessed bro to be here... it came down to that last play and as much as I disagree, that's just the way footy goes.”
Brother Julian was convinced as well, tweeting "That was a try" whilst Hurricanes coach Jason Holland was convinced the ball got to the line.
“It’s pretty obvious the view. It’s been talked around,” Holland added in the post-match press conference.
“I look back to qualifying 4 v 5, try and control the things we can control. Part of the battle coming to Canberra is the 50/50 calls don’t go your way here so that’s part of it.”
