Stormers leave referee battle over to the big boss

The Stormers are leaving the fight for some form of justice from Kiwi referee Mike Fraser’s performance last weekend over to Gert Smal.

The New Zealander wasn’t a popular man after his controversial handling of the scrums in particular played a major role in the Capetonians’ 9-15 loss to the Chiefs at Newlands.

ALSO READ: Adaptable Chiefs catch Stormers with their pants down

Ironically his awarding of a penalty try from a defensive scrum of the hosts was arguably justified but his overall decision-making was inconsistent enough for Smal, the franchise’s director of rugby, to make an official complaint.

The Stormers, however, arrived in Singapore for their match against the Sunwolves without any major feelings of injustice.

“It’s tough to comment on the referee’s showing,” said assistant coach Paul Treu on Monday.

“There are many factors that need to be considered. Of course there are things we weren’t happy with but the last thing want to get involved with now is how the referees are performing.”

Instead, Treu believes the Stormers created more than enough of opportunities not to have relied on better judgement from Fraser for a different result.

“Our execution was really disappointing. We made mistakes at vital times,” he said.

“To be honest, we pretty much gave that game away.”

One positive to emerge from a generally stale performance was the Stormers’ defence, which is part of Treu’s responsibilities.

“It was probably our best defensive effort of the season. It was quite an arm-wrestle and we can hopefully continue in that vein,” he said.

“But we can’t ignore the fact that the Chiefs exploited us with attacking kicks, which led to points for them. The Sunwolves are quite smart with their attacking kicks behind you, so we’ll have to wary of that.”

For more sport your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.