Super Rugby Pacific: Shorthanded Moana Pasifika bow out with win over Brumbies

Moana Pasifika have bowed out of Super Rugby Pacific - for this season at least - with a brilliant win, coming from behind with only 14 players to rock the Brumbies' playoff hopes.

They won 21-19 in the last performance by the current edition of Moana Pasifika, although hints in the past week suggest the franchise may still be rescued.

The game featured a red card, a couple of yellows, ruled-out tries through intervention by the third-match official and a try awarded 40 seconds after being disallowed.

Moana Pasifika's players fought all the way, scoring a converted try in the 73rd minute to take the lead for the first time in the match and then holding out the Brumbies' final attacks.

The Brumbies finish sixth to sneak into the post-season, but Tana Umaga's Moana Pasifika players ended their own season with a second win and something to celebrate.

Their task got tougher inside the final quarter, when one of their best players - No.12 Faletoi Peni - was issued with a yellow card for a dangerous tackle with head contact on a Brumbies player. Because Peni had already incurred a yellow card in the first half, he was given a 20-minute red card, which didn't expire before the end of the match.

Locked 14-all at halftime, Moana Pasifika No.10 Patrick Pellegrini scoring all their points with two converted tries.

A bizarre situation unfolded around his first try, after his initial lunge at the try-line was deemed a knock-on by referee Jordan Way. Play then resumed and continued for 40 seconds, before the TMO intervened and replays showed he had indeed scored.

Moana Pasifika shareholders voted this week to appoint liquidators to the franchise's holding company, but NZ Rugby said the tender process for their licence was continuing, while it's understood a private consortium or the New Zealand, Australian and Samoan governments could come to the rescue.

The Brumbies will now face top-of-the-table Hurricanes in Wellington, when the competition playoffs begin next week.

See how the game unfolded here.