Stormers can hold heads high despite ref calls, tough result – Reinach and Sacha
· Citizen
Stormers players have said they can still hold their heads high after their heartbreaking 28-27 defeat to Toulon in the Champions Cup last-16, made harder by several refereeing decisions that went against them.
The Stormers fought hard in their knockout match at Stade Mayol on Saturday, defending fiercely when Toulon had overwhelming possession and territory.
Visit milkshakeslot.online for more information.
The Cape side took the lead twice but could not hold on, and were on the wrong end of tough calls by referee Christophe Ridley and the TMO three times in the last eight minutes.
50/50 calls go against Stormers
First, prop Ntuthuko Mchunu appeared to have scored a try from a drive, with Ridley sending the incident to the TMO with an initial impression that it had not been grounded. The TMO made a tough ruling that the ball had been knocked on.
Then, a cynical infringement occurred at a Stormers maul that was collapsed right before the Toulon try line. In the URC, that would be given as a penalty try, but Ridley only awarded a penalty and a yellow card to Matthias Halagahu.
Lastly, after the Stormers regained possession in the final minute following a Toulon yellow card for head contact, they opted for a lineout rather than a long-range penalty. After several drives, Adré Smith crashed over the line, and referee Ridley referred the incident to the TMO, with an initial view that the ball had been held up.
The TMO could neither confirm the ball was held up nor that it was grounded, resulting in a no-try decision.
The Stormers also complained that Toulon loose forward Charles Ollivon was offside in the build-up, but the referee ruled he was behind the try line at the point of the pick-up.
“I don’t want to make any comments on what I saw, but I think we could have been a lot more fortunate with some of the calls towards the end,” said Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
“In the one maul I remember seeing JD [Schickerling’s] feet in the air when he was trying to get the ball to the back of the maul, whatever that means.”
On the final decision, he said, “Some people thought it was a try, some people didn’t.”
‘We can be proud of our performance’
Hacjivah Dayimani added that in two years of playing rugby in France, he learned that the 50/50 calls go against you away from home.
“So we tried to put them under pressure in the set-piece and lineouts. Just keep going at them,” he said.
“At the end we left it to a contest and the 50/50 call did not go to us.”
Reinach added that here and there a decision went against them, but that was part of rugby. The team can still be proud of how they played.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu added, “I think we really got the game plan right. We got a lot of unforced errors out of them. We did well in the kicking game and any scraps that were on the floor.
“I think we can be proud of our performance. It’s not the result we want, obviously, but we won’t go out with our heads down.”