KINGS CAPTAIN SLAMS REFEREE AFTER LOSS
Elstadt deserved card for punch, says Kings captain
IRATE Southern Kings skipper Schalk Ferreira slammed Japanese referee Shuhei Kubo after his team suffered a 41-10 Super Rugby defeat against the Stormers. Ferreira believes Kubo should have shown Stormers loose forward Rynhardt Elstadt a yellow or red card after he punched Kings No 8 Ruan Lerm on the jaw.
Elstadt was let off with just a warning.
The decision incensed 9 938 fans at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, who booed the referee.
The fiery Elstadt also tugged on the beard of burly Kings lock Irne Herbst during the tussle and was warned not to do it again by Kubo.
When the scuffle occurred after 20 minutes the Kings were right in the game and determined to break their hoodoo of never beating a South African team in Super Rugby.
Asked if he felt Elstadt should have been shown a yellow card, Ferreira said: “Yes I do. I felt, and not being negative towards the referee, that he had in his mind that the Stormers were the dominating team.
“So every 50/50 call went to their side. I really do feel that. I thought for a punch like that you should get penalised with a yellow card as a minimum. I think they got off softly there.”
Ferreira said he was disappointed that the Kings could not get an elusive South African derby win.
“I am disappointed. We did not come here just to be on the pitch. There is a problem if you step off the field after losing and you are happy with that,” he said.
“I don’t think the scoreline reflected our performance. We created some great opportunities which we did not finish.
“Now we must focus on executing our game plan. That is how we get judged and not on the scoreline.”
Kings head coach Deon Davids congratulated the Stormers after their third consecutive Super Rugby victory.
“It is all about using opportunities on the day – they did that better than us. But, on our side, I felt we were right in the game with 10 minutes left,” he said.
“We had ample opportunities to get back into it, but we did not capitalise on them.
“Looking back on our first game against the Jaguares, it is about using our opportunities effectively. I think if we can do that the results will look much better.
“There were also one or two scrums in the opposition half on our own ball which we lost. We can improve on our scrum performance.
“The Kings never stopped believing that we can compete. From the start we were right in there and we did the right stuff.
“We did well and we had some good moments with the ball in hand.
“I felt that after we worked ourselves 80m upfield, we then made one silly mistake and we were standing behind the poles.
“I understand it is a young team and there are one or two areas where we are not gelling yet. Our continuity is not right.
“I believe as the season goes on we will get better.
“From a conditioning perspective I did not see lapses where we were out on our feet,” Davids said.
After wins over the Bulls and Jaguares in their opening games, the Stormers scored six tries to show they will be among the top teams in Super Rugby this season.
The Kings scored their only try after 56 minutes when wing Makazole Mapimpi gathered a perfect cross-field kick from Lionel Cronje to power his way over the tryline.
The scorers: Southern Kings 10: Tries: Makazole Mapimpi. Conversion: Lionel Cronje. Penalty: Cronje Stormers 41: Tries: Dillyn Leyds, Bjorn Basson, Rynhardt Elstadt, Robert du Preez, Justin Phillips, EW Viljoen. Conversions: Du Preez (2), Kurt Coleman (2). Penalty: Du Preez