Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani reckons the Kaapse team were punished onnodig in the scrums in last week’s 37-24 United Rugby Championship (URC) loss to Ospreys.
Five of the 10 penalties conceded by the Stormers were dished out against them in the front-row shove and according to Hlungwani, they now have clarity from the URC referee panel after sending the decisions for review.
But getting pinged for set-piece dominance still has Hlungwani a bit bitterbek. He says: “We have had some clarity in terms of about five scrum calls which that were probably incorrectly blown.
“I don’t wanna make this a big thing, you know. Everyone can make a mistake but ja, there were five scrums where we sort of aligned. Because usually, we’ll ask ‘what do we need to do better?’
“We felt we should have gotten the penalty but in saying that we will still look for improvement every single week.”
He refuses to blame the refereeing decision for the loss, and adds as they gear up to face Zebre this week: “We struggled to get out of our half. Our exits were not as good as we wanted them to be.
“And the minute you start giving a team lots of attacking opportunities in your 22, you know, it becomes tough.
“Eventually somewhere something is gonna break…”