The Super 12 final will be held outside New Zealand for the first time on May 27 after George Gregan's Brumbies scored three tries to one in beating the spirited Cats 28-5.
The visitors kept the record crowd of 25,126 at Bruce Stadium, Canberra, quiet for much of the gameon Saturday night as the Brumbies stuttered and spluttered through the first 70 minutes. Two late tries ensured their spot in the final against the Crusaders.
The home team was ahead 6-5 at the changeover but looked distinctly rattled by the Cats, who were coming off five straight wins after being hammered 64-0 by the Brumbies on April 1.
It was a different story on Saturday as the Laurie Mains-coached South Africans turned the Brumbies into bumblies for much of the game.
Jannie van der Walt scored the only try of the first half after 11 minutes, and almost scored a second five minutes later.
The Brumbies started the second spell with much more determination but it took 14 minutes for them to score. Andrew Walker slammed over wide out for a try (his 13th in Super 12 2000) but Stirling Mortlock missed the conversion.
New Zealand referee Paddy O'Brien pinged the Brumbies once for obstruction by a decoy runner, and handled the always tense game with calm authority.
With seven minutes left it was 15-5 to the Brumbies, and the Cats were far from out of it. But then Joe Roff scored close to the posts, to be followed a couple of minutes later by Mitch Hardy. Mortlock converted both tries to add to his three penalty goals.
The Brumbies played without injured skipper Brett Robinson and were probably reasonably happy with their patient second half performance. However things would have been much closer if Louis Koen had packed his kicking boots for the trip Down Under.
