Last-gasp Blues and Brumbies join Chiefs in Super Rugby semis

SYDNEY :The Auckland Blues kept alive their title defence with a last-gasp 20-19 victory over the Waikato Chiefs and the ACT Brumbies beat the Wellington Hurricanes 35-28 to complete the Super Rugby Pacific semi-final line-up on Saturday.

The Chiefs lost the top seeding they earned by topping the regular-season standings to the Canterbury Crusaders, who outmuscled the Queensland Reds 32-12 on Friday, but still progressed to the last four as "lucky losers".

The 12-times champion Crusaders will host the Blues on Friday in Christchurch, where they are unbeaten in 30 Super Rugby playoff matches, while the Chiefs will stay in Hamilton to play the Brumbies on Saturday.

The Chiefs looked to have locked up victory at Waikato Stadium on Saturday when a try from centre Daniel Rona and 14 points from the boot of Damian McKenzie gave them a 19-13 lead with time running out.

The Blues have been playing catch-up since losing their first two matches of the year, however, and they battered away at the Chiefs defence after the hooter until lock Josh Beehre reached over the line to score and Beauden Barrett converted.

"There's been a whole lot of ups and downs through our season and... although there's another week for us, we've got to enjoy that kind of moment," said Blues skipper Patrick Tuipulotu.

The Chiefs, runners up for the last two years, were left stunned after leading for most of the game and will need to regroup over the next week before they resume their bid for a first title since 2013.

"I thought we had that game in the bag," said lock Tupou Vaa'i. "I guess footy's a strange game sometimes, you can start on a high and then it can humble you real quick."

The final playoff would have been a dead rubber had the Chiefs won, with