It may be a while before Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher puts his side’s loss to local rivals the Waratahs on Friday night behind him.
The frustrated mentor openly conceded that the Brumbies had let four crucial Super 14 points get away from them in the 24-17 loss.
"I thought we could have won that game, we came here to win it – at half-time we had the game within our grasp and we didn’t complete so I’m disappointed," Fisher said.
Despite the obvious disappointment of not leaving Sydney with victory, Fisher was still full of praise for his charges.
The Brumbies’ effort in fighting back in the first half to grab a 17-10 lead after trailing 10-0 was particularly pleasing for the coach.
"We were a little bit flustered there in the first half, I think we were certainly down on communication and a little bit of panic (set in)," Fisher said.
"But credit to the leadership of the team and people like George (Smith) and Nic Henderson and the like, and the team really started to surge forward."
"So I thought from a difficult situation we ended up with a great first half of footy and obviously we were very pleased to go in at half-time with the lead.
"And I think that’s a tremendous strength of the team when you are under the pump, to be able to compose yourselves, finish off the first half well and show that there are a lot of good things in this team."
But Fisher admits that his team’s unabated eagerness in attempting to pile on the points, even with a handy 17-10 lead, backfired badly.
The Brumbies’ 17 unanswered first-half points came in a 10-minute onslaught and instead of consolidating their position they continued to attack the Waratahs – regrettably according to Fisher.
"Probably (when we led) at 17-10 we could have just kicked the ball because I don’t think anybody was going to go 80 metres and score," Fisher said.
"So in hindsight we probably should have just kicked and kicked a couple more times and we probably would have won the game."
