OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 1.25pm.
ACT Brumbies coach Eddie Jones on Wednesday turned the heat back on the Canterbury Crusaders, questioning their lineout tactics ahead of Saturday’s Super 12 rugby final in Canberra.
Jones is tired of opposing teams continually querying the legality of the Brumbies’ lineout methods in recent weeks, seeing it as an obvious attempt to influence the referee.
When Crusaders coach Robbie Deans tried it again Tuesday – raising the old concerns about the Brumbies’ use of decoy runners and adding a new claim of illegal scrum tactics – Jones fired right back, pointing the finger at the Crusaders’ lineout.
“I think it’s pretty disappointing that coaches are bringing that out in a public forum and using it as a way to pressure referees,” Jones said.
“It’s happened over the past four or five weeks and there seems to be a particular concentration on us.”
Jones said he had urged South African referee Andre Watson to keep an eye on the lineouts, believing the Crusaders, like semi-final opponents the Golden Cats, were sending in additional men at the last moment.
“We believe it is illegal what they’re doing,” Jones said.
“We’re hopeful the referee will have a look at that.
“We’ll definitely discuss it with Andre before the game but it seems to me that the coaches would rather discuss it in the public forum.”
The Brumbies’ decoy tactics in attack have come under the microscope before, with Cats’ coach Laurie Mains questioning their legality on several occasions.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that they do have an intention to create an advantage by the positioning of their support players,” Deans said Tuesday.
Deans also targeted the scrum tactics used by the Brumbies in their 17-12 league round win over the Crusaders in Christchurch two weeks ago.
Jones said the Crusaders should be looking at their own technique before attacking the Brumbies.
“We’re probably the least penalised scrum in the competition whereas Canterbury are the most penalised scrum in the competition, so we’ll let the referee adjudicate on that,” he said. — AFP