Brumbies coach Jake White has lauded the character his team showed to fight back in the second half and clinch a dramatic victory over the Cheetahs in Canberra on Saturday.

The former Springbok coach said that the last-minute victory was just reward for the determination his side had shown in a difficult situation, and pointed out that it showed how they are developing as a unit.

He commented: Those sorts of results you need to be happy, I mean there was a lot of talk in the change room that last year, we wouldn't have won that one, we would have given up at half time.

"Those are the sort of games you need to win because they build confidence and momentum. They are so important when you're trying to build a team together."

White added that if it were not for the hard work that the Brumbies had put in during the pre-season they may not have been able to lift themselves to fight back in the way that they did.

"It's about the hard work that we've been putting in, all credit to the conditioning staff because coming back from 23-10 down to win the game is quite an achievement in itself," he said.

Brumbies skipper Ben Mowen said that although it was not the perfect performance he was happy that they managed to find a way to win, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

"We're not kidding ourselves, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be tidied up. We didn't play well around our 50, some options you would like to change, but as long as you are winning and you can change them, then it's a better place to be in," he said.

The Cheetahs were naturally deflated after the loss which saw them surrender a 13-point lead in the second half in which they were penalised frequently by the referee as the game reached its heartbreaking climax.

Cheetahs captain Adriaan Strauss said that his side were gutted at giving up a valuable away win which seemed sealed with 20 minutes to go.

"We are not going to get more opportunities to win a game than we had today, so obviously disappointing," he said.

Strauss admitted to becoming frustrated at the frequency with which his pack were penalised as the game neared its conclusion and added that they will have to take a hard look at what they were doing wrong in order to avoid a similar situation in the future.

"I felt there at the end the decisions were going against us. We need to have a look at that and try to fix that. We definitely gave away penalties at the scrum, but I think one or two could have gone our way and that could have definitely changed the game," said Strauss.