Fight night as rivals push boundaries
SPITE and fight were all-toocommon themes in Hamilton on Friday night. The Chiefs and Hurricanes, two teams stacked with All Blacks, collided, and the result was not pretty.
No punches appeared to be thrown but it’s hard to recall a Kiwi derby with as much off the ball niggle as this in recent times.
Three yellow cards were dished out but referee Brendon Pickerill did not have control or consistency, allowing players to regularly scrap off the ball. He also lacked support from sideline assistants Glen Jackson, James Doleman and TMO Glenn Newman to stamp out such behaviour.
At almost every ruck players were taken out or scuffling in backplay long after the ball had been cleared.
There is no suggestion the result would have been different had a firmer hand been applied – the Hurricanes made too many unforced errors for that, and the Chiefs deserved their third straight victory. But also no denying it detracted from the spectacle between Super Rugby’s two form teams, and must be cleaned up.
On the field at least, it has also got to the point where the Chiefs and Hurricanes genuinely dislike each other.
The Chiefs, with their aggressive, in-your-face tactics, seemed to target Hurricanes captain Dane Coles and lieutenant TJ Perenara in particular. They found success getting under Perenara’s skin, but not always legally.
Chiefs lock Dominic Bird escaped on-field sanction for a blatant late hit on Perenara. And No 8 Michael Leitch was deemed lucky to receive a yellow rather than red card by the citing commissioner for his high shot on Hurricanes hooker Ricky Riccitelli. Given the four-week ban Steven Luatua copped, Leitch could face a similar suspension.
‘‘We didn’t expect them to play any differently. In fact, I thought they were probably more intimidating last week,’’ Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd said. ‘‘The Chiefs are the Chiefs. You know what you’re going to get but we were disappointed we didn’t handle that as well as we would’ve liked.
‘‘I thought there were four or five indiscretions off the ball that I don’t think were in the best interests of footy or have a place in the game but at the end of the day they get dealt with or not dealt with by the referee and there’s a judicial process that sits in behind that.’’
Perenara, frustrated with his own performance, did not want to inflame the Bird incident.
‘‘It’s part of the game now,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to get better at dealing with that sort of stuff. We expected it coming in here. People have their own perception of how they view something. It is what it is but it doesn’t make us win or lose.’’
Chiefs coach Dave Rennie was keen to point out the banter and baiting did not come from one direction.
‘‘Both sides were into it. You’ve got TJ Perenara in the opposition so he’s going to do his best to wind people up all night,’’ Rennie said. ‘‘There was a lot of stuff off the ball. That’s what seems to come out of these games, especially us and the Hurricanes lately.’’
Asked directly about Bird’s hit, Rennie said: ‘‘He lost his cool a bit based on something he had mouthed off in his ear. We’ve got to be more resilient about that sort of stuff. I don’t see anything major with that.’’
As for the animosity between the Chiefs and Canes, Rennie essentially attributed it to overzealous competitiveness.
‘‘You’ve got a lot of men out there who have played a lot of footy with and against each other. There’s a lot at stake. I guarantee if they were staying close by they’d probably be having a beer later on but they were grabbing each other’s throats for 80 minutes. That’s the nature of our game. There’s always going to be a bit of niggle.’’