The Brumbies have consolidated their position atop the Australian Super Rugby conference with a scrappy victory over the Cheetahs to extend their run of home wins to 11 - one shy of equalling their record from the 1996-1998 seasons.

The Brumbies appeared to show no ill-effects following the bye and a disrupted preparation due to the Wallabies camp in the lead-up, taking just three minutes to open the scoring. Henry Speight, moving from the wing to outside centre due to a Tevita Kuridrani's shoulder injury, made a strong run and Christian Leali'ifano soon after broke through soft defence by Joe Pietersen for a try that he converted.

The hosts dominated possession in the opening 20 minutes but they failed to add to their score while the visitors from Bloemfontein opened their account with a penalty goal to Joe Pietersen. Leali'ifano added another penalty but the Brumbies, for all their territorial and possession dominance, when to the break with only a 13-3 lead at the break.

Blake Enever snared first try for the Brumbies on debut early in the second half from a rolling maul, a tactic the Brumbies used throughout with mixed results.

The Brumbies blew a number of subsequent chances because of a lack of patience and execution - Matt Toomua was pulled up for a double movement and Speight dropped the ball over the tryline - while neither side could get on top of the intense scrum battle.

The Cheetahs tried to get back into the game in the final 20 minutes, despite a lack of ball and field position, but they were let down by poor handling and strong Brumbies defence.

Cheetahs captain Francois Uys praised the Brumbies' defence, saying the particularly "defended the maul really well, especially in the first half, and we didn't get any points", but he lamented poor accuracy, saying "we didn't really execute the plays".

Brumbies captain Stephen Moore said it "would have been nice to get the four tries but sometimes that's the way it goes".

We got over the line a fair few times but we either dropped the ball or got held up, but we're happy to win. I thought our defence was pretty good, particularly our maul defence and our one-on-one tackles."