'There were some cynical penalties that were missed'

REACTION: Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff says his team is frustrated they didn’t get the rewards they deserved for their maul dominance against Connacht in Galway.

The Stormers fell away in the second half of that United Rugby Championship clash at The Sportsground on Saturday, going down 17-19 in a match that just as easily could have gone their way.

The Capetonians held a 10-7 lead early in the second half, but yellow cards to Sergeal Petersen (fullback) for a deliberate knock-down and Ruhan Nel (centre) for a high tackle cost them dearly as the home side scored twice in that time to edge ahead and stay ahead.

“The mauling was very frustrating,” said Kitshoff.

“I felt we he had complete dominance when it came to maul time, but didn’t get any reward out of it.

“There were some cynical penalties that were missed. I am not bad-mouthing the ref [Ben Blain – Scotland] at all, but there were clear penalties that were missed and it was very frustrating.

“We will have a look at where it went wrong then discuss it with the refs prior to games.

“It was very frustrating not to get more reward out of that amazing maul metres we made in the first half.”

Sergeal Petersen channels his inner CR7 ⚽️#URC | #CONvSTO pic.twitter.com/cpYsEk5VEA

— United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) February 26, 2022

Stormers head coach John Dobson believe there still needs to be a lot of adaptation when it comes to interpretation of laws from different officials.

“It felt a bit like that tour [last year] in terms of adapting to a slightly different realm, especially around scrums and mauls,” said Dobson.

“The penalty count was a concern and we will have to look at our own discipline.

“The jump from a series of local derbies to a Northern Hemisphere game up here was always going to require an adaptation and maybe we weren’t sharp enough or fast enough there.”

Dobson added: “I think you would all agree that what we saw over the local derbies, especially at scrum and maul time, wasn’t what we saw today [Saturday] in terms of teams getting rewarded or penalised or how you can defend mauls.

“I think the more we play each other the more we will get some sort of uniformity.

“I don’t want to say much more than that, but you could sense it was the source of frustration for us.

“I am not saying anyone is right or wrong.”

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