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Cape Town - Christian Lealiifano is one of the most experienced Super Rugby players in the Brumbies side, but that counted for little when he lined up his final conversion against the Stormers on Saturday night.
David Pocock had just scored the Brumbies’ second try to put them within a point of their hosts as a little under 10 minutes remained.
It appeared that the Stormers would have to fight back once more, but what happened next gave them a lifeline that they would not let slip.
Lealiifano, from just to the left of the uprights, inexplicably pulled his conversion – the ball smashing out off the left hand upright as somehow the Stormers stayed ahead.
It will surely be a moment that haunts the Brumbies at some stage between now and their trip to Johannesburg next weekend, but captain Stephen Moore says the side will lend their support to the 27-year-old Wallaby.
“I feel for him,” Moore said after Saturday’s 25-24 loss to the Stormers.
“He does a lot of work on his goal kicking and he’d be very disappointed to miss that. There are other opportunities in the game that we missed and we certainly won’t be looking at that as the reason that we didn’t win.”
The Brumbies skipper encouraged his team-mates to be there for Lealiifano as they look for victory against the Lions this weekend.
“We’ll need to get around Christian; he’ll take that pretty hard,” said Moore.
“He’s a senior member of the team. We’ll support him this week and try and move on quickly. That’s all we can do, we can’t dwell on it.”
The Brumbies take on the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday. Kick-off is at 17:05.
