Pumas boss blames officiating, inexperience for another close defeat

The Pumas believed they had Western Province in real trouble, especially at scrum-time, but referee Paul Mente saw a different picture, lamented Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse.

The Pumas lost the Currie Cup game 28-14 on Friday night at Newlands but having trailed just 21-14 close to the end, the Pumas almost pulled off a shock win over one of the major unions.

Stonehouse was especially frustrated with the officiating of the scrums where Pumas loosehead prop Morgan Naude had Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, who replaced Frans Malherbe two hours before kickoff, in real trouble.

“I think it’s sometimes difficult for the refs and that’s why the guys always say you have to go back to the drawing board and look at what went wrong in the first half, because I think we killed them,” he said.

“They (the officials) make decisions and it is what it is, but I maybe would have differed from them,” he said.

It’s the second time the Pumas almost beat the Capetonians after the Stormers had to come from behind in the Super Rugby Unlocked series to snatch a 42-37 win in Nelspruit.

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“It’s the same story every week but that’s why you get out there every week and teach the players how to handle it,” said Stonehouse.

“If we got those two extra ‘tries’ which were disallowed in the first half it could have been different. If you look at the game they didn’t do any playing; we made the mistakes and they just took their opportunities,” he said.

“I think it’s an experience thing, it has to be, because these are young guys.”

Stonehouse however lauded his players who “keep on fighting” despite the long injury list they have to deal with on a weekly basis.

“The eagerness of trying to get the win, you can understand that. We still have three home games, including against the Cheetahs and the Lions and who knows what might happen there,” he said.

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