Highlanders coach Glenn Moore was left ruing his side's inability to close out games after last night's heart-breaking loss.
Moore said it had happened in the pre-season when the side failed to finish off games and it happened again last night, when the side went ahead with less than two minutes to go but turned the ball over to concede a drop goal.
"It is pressure decision making ,when guys just have to make the right decision. We needed to control that ball from the kick-off," Moore said.
He said the side conceded a couple of soft tries on defence, which was disappointing but he was pleased with parts of the attack.
"We had talked about it before the game in attacking them and using some structures we had worked on. And it opened up for us."
He said his side had no worries about scoring tries, but said at this level the defence had to be first class.
The Brumbies were always going to come back, and he said they were given too many opportunities.
The Highlanders did get two bonus points out of the game. He had praise for the players making their first Super 14 start.
Captain Jimmy Cowan said he had told his side they had to play for the entire 80 minutes.
"I don't want to be in a side which is merely competitive. We want to be a side which wins and can put these sort of games away," Cowan said.
He conceded the loss was not the end of the world and he hoped to build on the performance.
"We lost some key guys out there but the guys showed some real guts to come back."
Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles said his side did not panic when they conceded three early tries and knew the match was not over.
The momentum was always going to swing in the game, and once the crowd got involved, he knew the Highlanders would come back.