Stormers expect niggle from Chiefs

 

The Stormers’ one point loss to the Crusaders had the coaching staff and players worked up due to the niggily play from the New Zealand team, this came to a head in an incident where referee Rohan Hoffmann awarded a penalty against Owen Franks for holding Schalk Burger back at a ruck.

 

These tactics have been brought up by both coach Allister Coetzee and Jean De Villiers in the lead up to Saturday’s match against the Chiefs with the captain stating that he expects ‘a hell of a lot of that’.

 

De Villiers is looking to handle any potential problems that arise through the right channels and hopes Saturday's referee Craig Joubet will be aware of the Stormers’ concerns.

 

"I will definitely speak to Craig [Joubert] prior to the game about it.

 

"I'll be on his case during the game, it's just such a tough thing to handle as a player because what can you do?

 

"Its a very tough thing and you want to keep the game clean but either the ref needs to do something about it or we as players need to do something about it, then it can get messy so hopefully the officials can sort it out," said the Stormers skipper.

 

Coach Coetzee reveled that it was the Crusaders that had let him in on the Chiefs’ tactics as they had felt the same affects from the Waikato team when they faced off in Round Two.

 

"After discussions with them [the Crusaders] they were open about it.

 

"Those were the tactics they  adopted and which were applied by the Chiefs against them.

 

"I am referring to the pulling and taking out beyond the ball by the players," said Coetzee.

 

This is not the only thing the Stormers will be expecting when they face the Super Rugby title holders on Saturday.

 

De Villiers said: "We know what to expect, it will be very physical, it will be a tough game and they will challenge us from a defensive point of view with their strike runners. 

 

"They are the champions and they have been playing pretty well, they have managed to squeeze wins against two good teams.

 

"We need to be at our best defensively and we need to put in the same physical effort that we put in last weekend.

 

"It's at home game for them, they will be looking for a big performance but we are looking to bounce back as well.

 

"We do feel that there are weakness and we are looking to exploit them like any other team but we will have to put in a very good performance to beat them."

 

Coetzee is also weary of the Chiefs as many of thier big guns are set to return from injuries.

 

"They are getting a few players back, they are getting [Brodie] Retalick back, I think they are getting a prop back, they are getting the centre [Bundee] Aki back and they are getting [Gareth] Anscombe back," said Coetzee.