Backline failings allow Lions' forwards to shine
De Bruin admitted that his backline, which featured Aphiwe Dyantyi in the midfield with Rohan Janse van Rensburg, failed to hit their straps for large periods during the 80 minutes.
The home side scored six tries on their way to victory, with half of those scores coming via driving mauls close to the Brumbies' tryline.
"It [midfield selection] was a gamble from the word go," De Bruin told reporters after the match.
"It was almost a forced gamble, but at stages it went well. However, there were too many unforced errors unfortunately, but nothing to panic about.
"If it doesn’t work with your centres then the forwards take over or you play blind or you look at different options.
"When the forwards took over it was three great maul tries that they scored, and we knew we got them [Brumbies] under the pump in the maul and we decided we are going to keep on mauling them. So well done to the pack
"We did pick up on the ref’s mic that they were under a warning with coming offside the whole time in the maul and we had to capitalise. If you know they are battling in that department, you got to keep on playing there."
The Lions were helped by the Brumbies' poor discipline throughout the match. The Canberra side conceded 19 penalties to go with their two yellow and one red card in a brutal contest.
"The big thing that we decided on was that our discipline had to be better than theirs and funny enough that paid through at the end of the day. We just focussed on our job," De Bruin added.
The Lions will now face the Stormers in Cape Town next weekend ahead of the June international window.
Robbie Fleck's side stooped to a new low when they went down 23-26 to the Sunwolves in Hong Kong. However, De Bruin was not too surprised by the result.
"Just to put things in perspective those Sunwolves are a very good team and they have taken many teams like us right to the end. I think people must realise that they are a very good team and a well-coached team.
"The Stormers will be back and it will be a typical South African derby, so we expect nothing but a big arm-wrestle," he said.
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