Brisbane City coach Nick Stiles hopes to face the Canberra Vikings in the National Rugby Championship grand final after the two teams fought out a thriller in front of a record crowd at Viking Park on Saturday.
Vikings coach Brad Harris was left lamenting the first half, with Brisbane holding on to win 37-31 and remain undefeated at the top of the NRC ladder.
It means Brisbane are in the box seat to finish minor premiers and host the grand final in three weeks' time.
While Harris was unhappy with the first half, Stiles was unhappy with the second, but he was pleased with the way City defended their line as the Vikings launched wave after wave of attack for four minutes after the siren looking for the elusive winning try.
Brisbane captain Liam Gill's pilfer finally ended the contest, which was played in front of 2177 fans.
"You always hope that the two best sides make it through to the grand final and I think the way Canberra have played all year I'm confident they're one of the best sides," Stiles said.
"So it'll be nice to see them again if you can get through there."
It was a frenetic start to the game, with the Vikings scoring first through their lethal rolling maul, which captain Jarrad Butler finished off in just the third minute.
But from there Brisbane City took control of the game, with prop Pettowa Paraka, try-scoring machine Junior Laloifi and lock Ben Hyne all crossing in the first half to give the visitors a commanding 24-5 half-time lead.
Brisbane five-eighth Jake McIntyre and Laloifi were proving a handful with the way the winger was able to run off his No.10.
It looked like City were going to run away with the game in the second half after Queensland Red Karmichael Hunt extended the lead to 27 points just two minutes after the restart.
But Vikings hooker Robbie Abel's outstretched hand started the comeback as he finished off another Canberra rolling maul.
Inside-centre Rodney Iona scored in the corner to capitalise on a Jordan Smiler break and then Abel's replacement Albert Anae also got on the scoresheet.
Gill's try with 16 minutes remaining helped arrest the momentum, but when City prop Markus Vanzati was sinbinned the Vikings capitalised almost immediately as prop Les Leuluaialii-Makin borrowed over.
The powerful Vikings scrum was putting the Brisbane pack under massive pressure, but the desperate visitors held on.
Harris said they would take confidence out of their second half, but they needed to learn from their mistakes in the first."I thought Christian [Lealiifano] controlled the game really well, Rodney Iona was really strong and we got really good impact of our bench," he said.
"Everyone talks about the Super [Rugby] players that we've got, but we went to our bench a bit earlier with the heat today, the club boys, and they delivered for us."The Vikings face a short turnaround, travelling to the Sunshine Coast to play Queensland Country on Sunday.BRISBANE CITY 37 (Pettowa Paraka, Junior Laloifi, Ben Hyne, Karmichael Hunt, Liam Gill tries; Jake McIntyre 4 cons) bt CANBERRA VIKINGS 31 (Jarrad Butler, Robbie Abel, Rodney Iona, Albert Anae, Les Leluaialii-Makin tries; Christian Lealiifano 2 cons) at Viking Park. Crowd: 2177.
