Brumbies earned their rest

 

The 30-20 victory saw the Brumbies move to the top of the Australian conference ahead of their bye next week, with matches against the Bulls, Force and Crusaders to end their season.

 

After a dominant first half, the Canberra outfit were forced to hold off a determined Lions side, and Larkham said that the final stages had passed as something of a blur for some of his players who were pushed to the limit.

 

"In the second half we did a lot of defending and I think the altitude hit us but the boys pushed through, the last 15 minutes was a blur for most of them.

 

"We knew that they were going to be aggressive coming out of their half and in the second half our guys were out on their feet but we stuck it out for the win," he said.

 

Larkham was pleased with the way his team responded after a disappointing performance against the Stormers the week before and said that taking six log points from their South African tour was particularly satisfying.

 

"It was 1000 times better than last week, I thought the boys played really well, the defence was solid and we created a few turnovers.

 

"We really wanted to make sure that we didn't focus on anything negative, we wanted to be really positive this week and credit to the boys for getting six points out of a South African tour which is rare," he said.

 

The Brumbies coach has been impressed with the Lions, and expects them to get even better under Ackermann's guidance in the years to come.

 

"It is a young group that has achieved a lot this year, Johan [Ackermann] is doing a fantastic job and if he can keep this squad together they are going to be dangerous going forward.

 

"In 2012 we had just three Wallabies in Stephen Moore, Pat McCabe and Ben Alexander, now we have 13 Wallabies. I have been particularly impressed with their backline and I'm sure some of them will be playing for the Springboks sooner rather than later.

 

Captain Stephen Moore said that his team's improvement at scrum-time had been key to their win.

 

"I think the guys that came on did a great job there, it was pleasing to turn that part of the game around because we were disappointed with how it went last week.

 

"It is such an important part of the game, we really needed that fourth try at the end there and we got that off the back of a good scrum," he said.