Sharks attack ref for costing them a win

The Sharks are up in arms at referee Andy Turner's handling of their 14-all draw against the Northern Bulls and contend that it was a major factor in them not winning a crucial Super 12 clash at Loftus on Saturday. They also cited Bulls' lock Marius Bosman for a headbutt.

Assistant coach Jake White said: "I hate to criticise a referee and seldom do so but this time something has to be said. Andy missed a lot of serious niggles, seldom policed the offside and seems to us to have blown very differently on certain interpretations than we had discussed in an earlier chat," said White.

Part of the problem, White asserts, is that South African referees are inconsistent. "They blow one way when they handle games overseas between Australian and New Zealand sides but when they control local derbies it's another matter.

"There have been two relatively low scoring draws - the Bulls against the Stormers and now us. Is it sheer coincidence? Not likely. It never seems to happen the other way around with New Zealand derbies where free-running, high-scoring matches are enjoyed by everyone with always a winner."

The Sharks were also so incensed by several foul play incidents which prompted Bosman's citing for a couple of alleged breaches of Law 26, and he appeared on Sunday morning in front of a three-man tribunal headed by Piet Niemann before the squad left for overseas.

The Sharks referred two incidents to match commissioner Mark Alexander - a head butt on Ollie le Roux and a trampling of Albert van den Berg. Alexander is believed to have agreed to pursue the Sharks' complaint on the headbutting incident after viewing the footage.

White said that neither Turner nor his touch-judges, Eugene Daniels and Kallie Prins-loo, had apparently spotted the headbutt on Le Roux in the 67th minute, which left the Sharks' Springbok prop shaken up, or the Van den Berg incident in the 82nd minute.

Bosman was later found guilty and sentenced to three weeks suspended for six months so he can travel but was cleared on an alternative charge of misconduct under another regulation clause.

One of the frustrated Sharks observed that players were often dropped if they had bad games but referees never seemed to be answerable for bad performances. "Their careers are not affected but those of players and coaches can be cut short because of their mistakes. How fair is that?" he asked.

Super 12 referees have been under fire in recent weeks. Cats' New Zealand coach Laurie Mains criticised two Australian referees for their handling of the Highlanders' and Hurricanes' matches pointing out that serious mistakes had cost them 14 points in both games and contributed heavily to the outcomes.

Most of the Super 12 coaches are unhappy about the general level of refereeing but until now, few have cared to make their feelings public. There was more than a tongue-in-cheek nature to Queensland coach John Connolly's remark about Australia's No 1 referee, Peter Marshall. It coincides with much of South Africa's low opinion of their top refs. Connolly reportedly said: "He could referee The All Blacks and Morocco to a 12-all draw."

While a stunned Mains described the 64-0 smashing from the ACT Brumbies in Canberra as a "new experience" for him and for which he is at a loss to explain why it all went so horribly wrong, the Sharks fear a backlash for this Saturday's clash at King's Park against Saturday's self-same whipping-boys.

"I have a feeling that it may have something to do with how close the squad came to beating the Highlanders and the Hurricanes and then somehow simply couldn't pick themselves up for this one after the disappointment of losing two matches in New Zealand which we really should have won," said Mains.

"I'll have to take a closer look at the players' psyche for some answers. Perhaps tour fatigue also played a part, but really there is simply no excuse for the way we stood back and allowed the Brumbies to play all the rugby while we watched them get on with it," added the former All Blacks' and Otago coach, after the Cats had crashed to the worst-ever Super 12 defeat.

In scoring nine tries the Brumbies again underlined their collective abilities with ball in hand but the Cats need to take another close look at their own contributions if they hope to do justice to themselves for the rest of Super 12 .

Apart from the obvious assessment that it was a shocking day at the office for Johan Erasmus and his men, the rest of the Cats' campaign will centre on the same team core which was embarrassed by the Brumbies.

"You can't make one or two changes on this evidence and expect miracle improvement. We have to look at the whole collective picture and regroup fast. We will be going down to Durban on Thursday but the hard work starts as soon as we get back," said Mains.

Sharks' coach Hugh Reece-Edwards concedes that Saturday's draw has made it tougher for the them to make the last four. But good results and a healthy number of bonus points from their last six successive home matches could see them challenge for a semifinal spot come the end of next month.

Scorers

Brumbies 64 - tries: Owen Finegan (2), Stirling Mortlock, Joe Roff, Mark Bartholomeusz, Ipolito Fenukitau, Andrew Walker, Graham Bond; penalties: Mortlock (1); conversions: Mortlock (8). Cats 0.

Bulls 14 - tries: Schutte Bekker; penalties: Jannie de Beer (2); dropped goal: De Beer. Sharks 14 - tries: Rodger Smith, Albert van den Berg; conversions: Clinton van Rensburg.