There were lots of games over this year that could have gone either way. Look at the Warratahs entire season, they could have been in the four but never got the “bounce of the ball” and to be honest, they never deserved it. The Bulls probably deserved to make the finals after their great start to the tournament.

The one team that stands out above all others that probably only made it due to refereeing decisions is the Crusaders. And I know every Kiwi will get their backs up for daring to have a go at them but it’s a fact – they have been getting more than their fair share of (let’s call it luck) for several years now.

Agree about the last game though, woeful goalkicking & sometimes poor decision making has cost us more than one-or-two playoff places in the past.

Sniff!

Just sad how these crucial decisions by match officials cost teams by those few points when it matters most. Losing out when ur team has played badly is one thing but it’s bad when it’s taken out of their hands by incompetence.

Verstaan?

That said, the Cheetahs were never in the running for a place in the playoffs & probably won’t be in the near future either. Pity, I actually like them though, just peed about the Pink Bulls though although that’s also not going to change anything now either.

Thanks Marius

Thanks Stefan Breytenbach

karma!!

Scrum contest: Bad calls cost Cheetahs

SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray believes the Cheetahs were not given a fair chance by Keith Brown at the scrums during their clash with the Brumbies last week.

Bray has requested more clarity on the final penalty which the Brumbies received in the dying moments of the match and which secured them the win when Christian Lealiifano converted the spot kick.

SANZAR are unhappy with Brown’s decisions in that match, especially in the scrums, where he penalised the Cheetahs five times, often within goal-kicking range.

Bray said Brown would undergo SANZAR’s official review, but he had already done a “self-review” where the imbalance was apparent.

“Keith has done his own self-review and out of it the scrums to me stood out as the big imbalance,” Bray told SuperSport.com

“Taking out the debate about the last penalty, the imbalance came with the way he managed the engage sequence in the scrum set-pieces,

“There was no question that the Cheetahs did go early, but both packs did and that started earlier with the Brumbies going early on the engage call, to which the Cheetahs responded.

“There were consequences to that, in that the hip position got messy and the Cheetahs lost confidence in the engage process. Keith has to take ownership of that in the game.”

Bray revealed the issue regarding the final scrum where the Cheetahs were penalised for wheeling the scrum was being reviewed by Sanzar’s scrum experts.

After the match, the Cheetahs’ management said they ordered their players not to wheel the scrum in case there was to be a penalty, but were penalised anyway.

“I’ve sent an email to the three scrum coaches in the countries and am waiting for a response,” Bray explained.

“The issue is that about three years ago we had what we call a “sideways crib”, where the back five literally walk sideways in the scrum.

“At the time we all agreed that it was rubbish and a negative tactic that was not in the spirit of the contest at the scrum.

“We spent a lot of time at the time debating how do you rule on it.

“The coaches felt at the time that you need to allow players to have an effective forward push before a scrum can wheel. If there is that, then if the scrum goes around the corner, and the scrum literally turns on its access, it isn’t illegal, as long as there is a forward shove.

“What I’ve asked is these three or four decisions which led to penalties and the last one to have a professional view as to how we approach this.

“We need to get back to all the referees and make sure they are mindful that this must be done legally.”

Having said that, two wrongs don’t make a right and the bottom line is that Joubert’s “errors” gave the Bulls an undeserved playoff place at our expense and I’m extremely glad that they got what they deserved in Christchurch last weekend.

“Cheaters never prosper”

karma is a ******…