Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse felt there was a lot that went wrong in their Currie Cup game against the Bulls.
Image: Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images
While believing poor refereeing played a role in his side’s loss to the Bulls in Currie Cup match in Pretoria, Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse didn’t want to say much about it.
The Pumas, who looked to be on course to claim a big win at Loftus Stadium on Friday night, ended up losing the match 31-26.
The men from Mbombela led 26-12 at halftime and the Bulls, boosted by numerical advantage on the field for the larger part of the game, made a comeback in the second half.
Stonehouse’s side got reduced to 14-men when flyhalf Tinus de Beer was red-carded before the halftime break.
They were further reduced to 13 in the second half after wing Tapiwa Mafura was called out for a dangerous foul on David Kriel with 13 minutes left to play.
The referee, Marius van der Westhuizen, and TMO didn’t agree on the foul, but the former went ahead and sent Mafura to the naughty chair.
“I don’t want to get into the refereeing, especially when you lose you will think about the referee, but the yellow card (of Mafura) I think it’s debatable,” Stonehouse said.
“There’s a lot of things which I thought went wrong today, but let’s not rather go into the referee because it’s not a good time for me.”
Stonehouse said though there were debatable decisions from the match officials, he felt his men could have done better to win the match or get a draw at least.
“You can go and look at the referee and all the mistakes he made, but also if you get a chance, you have to use it,” he said.
“That’s the difference with the Bulls and when they get on your final five-metre line, they score and that’s where we are lacking.
“I can’t say we don’t have the (experienced) guys that have been there for two or three years because we have them. When we coach we want them to understand what is going to happen after what they are doing,” Stonehouse said.
“When you kicked the last ball away, what did you wonder was going to happen after that last kick?
“You, 14 on the field and then 13, and you kick the ball away. You have to win it with brains, you got the opportunity to win it, so you have to win it.
“In games of today, tackling a guy and lifting him that’s not by mistake. When my wing (Mafura) went up for the ball, the wing from the Bulls went up four seconds early because he was following the ball and my guy could only go up when it was his time. That’s marginal for me and the (lifting) tackle is something else.
“We got three or four opportunities at the end of the game and we didn’t use them.”
With two games to go, the Pumas are still in the running for the playoffs spot as they are fourth on the log with 22 points.
They are playing the unbeaten Cheetahs and the Griquas, also in the running, in their final two games of the round robin.
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