New Zealand’s players have accused their South African opponents of dirty tactics in Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash in Durban.
New Zealand scored two late tries to win the match 26-21, but later claimed the Springboks had tried to unsettle them by foul means.
All Blacks centre Aaron Mauger said most of the incidents happened off the ball when players were not expecting it.
”There were a lot of cheap shots in at the side there,” Mauger told the New Zealand Press Association.
”Fair’s fair if you’re ready for it and shaping up but a lot of it’s coming in from the side of rucks, it’s pretty average really.”
Mauger, who landed a crucial drop goal during the match but also threw the pass that led to a South African intercept try, said it was hard for the referees and match officials to spot incidents that happened in backplay but the All Blacks wanted them to be aware of what was occuring.
”It’s pretty frustrating because a lot of it’s unseen, but if the cameras look hard enough they’ll be able to find a bit of dirt out there. That’s up to the officials to make sure they pick that stuff up,” he said.
”It’s usually like that, they [Springboks] try to target some of our main players and if that’s their intention we’ve just got to make sure we look after them.”
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw finished the game with two black eyes and was involved in several minor skirmishes off the ball.
The match commissioner looked at several incidents in the match but decided to take no action and All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen was reluctant to point the finger.
”Those things happen in every game. You all saw the same game we did. I’m not going to sit here and take pot shots at anybody,” Hansen said.
”Citings have got to be red card offences, maybe that’s one of the flaws in the citing process. If he doesn’t deem it to be a red card offence he can’t cite. You and I might see offences differently.” – Reuters