The Melbourne Rebels have hung tough in the dying minutes to end the Super Rugby playoff hopes of the Bulls with a nailbiting 21-20 victory at AAMI Park.
Second-rower Lopeti Timani scored what turned out to be the match-winning try for the Rebels on Saturday after barging over from close range midway through the second half.
Mike Harris's third successful conversion of the day proved crucial as the Rebels edged ahead by one point - an advantage they held until the final siren.
But the visitors could consider themselves somewhat unlucky after the video referee disallowed a try by Burger Odendaal one minute later, even though it appeared the inside centre had grounded the ball over the tryline.
"The call was made and it doesn't matter what you say now - it's not a try," said Bulls coach Frans Ludeke.
"So we will go with that.
"To argue it now is not going to change the result.
"It's a pity we couldn't finish that one off because it would have helped a lot.
"It definitely would have swung the momentum in the game."
Rebels coach Tony McGahan was impressed with the composure shown by his young side as they successfully held onto their one-point advantage in a scoreless final 20 minutes.
"It's always tough to beat the Bulls," said McGahan.
"This competition demands that you need to be as good as you can be each week and that's difficult.
"We've just come back from South Africa, where we played some good rugby but let ourselves down in certain aspects of the game.
"But the way we managed the last 15 minutes tonight showed we took a lot of lessons out of the last few weeks."
Melbourne's other tries were scored by impressive flyhalf Jack Debreczeni and Sean McMahon, whose 11th-minute effort was the flanker's first five-pointer at Super Rugby level.
Dean Greyling and Lappies Labuschagne crossed for the Bulls.
The Rebels were already out of playoff contention heading into Saturday's match, while the Bulls needed to win their last two games to keep their finals hopes alive.
The Rebels finish their 2015 campaign against the Western Force back at AAMI Park on Friday evening.
The Bulls return home to host the Cheetahs in a dead rubber in Pretoria next weekend.
Ludeke said it had to be confirmed whether Springboks great Victor Matfield would play in what would be his final Super Rugby match.
The towering second-rower was taken from the field 15 minutes into the second half at AAMI Park.
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