Chiefs replacement back Bundee Aki celebrates with the Super Rugby trophy © Getty Images

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Brumbies coach Jake White acknowledged the depth of the Chiefs squad had turned Saturday night's Super Rugby final to the home team when they claimed a 27-22 win at Hamilton's Waikato Stadium.

It was the confidence the Chiefs substitutions played with that was hard to contain. When an All Black like halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow was taken off and his replacement Augustine Pulu produced spark, or when they changed their centre it was crucial, he said. White was reluctant to make changes because he felt he needed calm heads who could handle the pressure.

"That's a lesson I learnt and it just reaffirmed for me that we are going to have to get a stronger bench and make sure that bench understands the pressures that come with it [the role of substitutes] and make sure that if I put them on with 20 to go I will get a return," White said.

The Chiefs had shown the value of depth in their squad. They had players injured who were not even available but had still won and that was all credit to them, he said. Mistakes in the later stages of the game by some of those older heads had come down to the pressure of the occasion.

"And the only way you can learn that is to put them in that situation. There is nothing you can do to fast track that. That's what coaching is, that's what teamwork is, that is what development is of a player," White said. "You can't replicate that in training, it only happens in finals when there is pressure like that around."

The side had been through an emotional rollercoaster through the semi-finals and into the final. While they went into the last quarter with a 10-point lead White always felt the pressure was going to come. The fact the side hadn't benefited from a pick-and-go try that was not given due to a lack of evidence might have made the difference in the end.

"But all credit to the Chiefs, they showed why they are a championship team and why they won last year and they showed why they came first in the whole competition this year by getting a home final, so yeah, good luck to them," White said.

The Brumbies coach praised veteran loose forward George Smith for his contribution to the side and said he represented everything they were trying to achieve with the Brumbies. He was proud of the side. They had been competitive and there was no-one in the stadium who didn't think they weren't capable of scoring in the 79th minute of the game.

"For me that meant they were giving it a crack for the full 80 minutes and you can't ask for more than that," White said.

All the young players in the squad would take important lessons from the final. It didn't get tougher than what they had been exposed to, White said.

Captain Ben Mowen said it came down to a couple of key moments where kicks hadn't found their targets and high kicks were dropped and that had released some pressure that had been building. But you had to be able to take those releases of pressure and turn them into points which was the Chiefs did in the final.

"We'll take a lot from our effort tonight and particularly in the last three weeks. It's been an outstanding attitude from our guys and anytime we've thrown a challenge at them in terms of travel or recovery they tick through it and actually enjoy that which is what you want to see," Mowen said.

The loss had not come down to fitness, it was more down to instances of decision-making on one or two occasions, he said.