Cape Town - The Stormers are furious at the performance of New Zealand referee Mike Fraser during their 15-9 home loss to the Chiefs over the weekend.
The Capetonians are so upset that the WP Rugby Union’s director of rugby, Gert Smal, confirmed that he will take up the matter with governing body SANZAAR.
“I’m not happy with the referee’s performance. It wasn’t good enough,” Smal told Netwerk24.
Smal said he’ll be in discussion with SANZAAR’s refereeing boss Lyndon Bray.
“We’ll support our feedback with video footage,” Smal added.
Smal would not say which aspects of Fraser’s performance had upset the Stormers, but the talk behind the scenes indicate that they weren’t happy with the manner in which the scrums were officiated.
The Chiefs won critical penalties at scrum time and also received a penalty try when the Stormers scrum buckled under pressure.
Smal added that he was in favour of having neutral referees in the competition.
His comments come after former Springbok coach Nick Mallett had questioned SANZAAR’s policy which allows an away team to get a referee from their own country.
“I do think they (the Chiefs) were assisted by the referee (Fraser). I don’t think he had the best game and I am not so sure about the system where New Zealand referees ref New Zealand teams. I am not saying this as a biased South African supporter,” Mallett said in the SuperSport studio after the game on Saturday.
“I don’t think he (Fraser) got the scrums 100% right, particularly when (Steven) Kitshoff was on the field. He got them correct when (JC Janse) van Rensburg was on the field; the penalty try was a penalty try. But before that, I thought Kitshoff was unfairly penalised and it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. You want referees to be neutral.”
