Schalk’s referee incident ‘a storm in a teacup’

RUDOLPH JACOBS

JOHANNESBURG - The Stormers have put the Schalk Burger “incident” behind them as they continued their Super 14 preparations yesterday.

Burger attracted attention over an alleged “slap to the face” of referee Mark Lawrence during an altercation with Highlanders scrumhalf and captain Jimmy Cowan during last weekend’s clash at Newlands.

What initially looked like an accidental slap to Lawrence’s face, turned out to be only a innocent slap to the arm and Lawrence himself laughed it off as mere accidental.

The incident was investigated by Saru’s chief of referees Andre Watson who found it to be purely accidental and the book on the incident is now closed.

“There was no intent or malice involved,” said Stormers coach Allister Coetzee.

Yesterday the Stormers, who beat the Highlanders 33-0 at Newlands, continued their preparations for the Hurricanes clash in Cape Town on Saturday evening.

The Canes, unusually lethargic against the Cheetahs last weekend, ne- ver seemed to be able to escape from the in-your-face defence the Cheetahs employed during the game.

But while the Stormers were still holding thumbs yesterday that hooker Tiaan Liebenberg was over his flu, Coetzee said the group is starting to gel as a united squad, even when he is enforced to make changes.

Last weekend, after the Burger incident took place, he replaced his captain with the vital last 20 minutes still remaining in the game.

“Even when I had to take off Schalla (Burger) in the 60 minutes and put Pieter Louw on because Schalk hasn’t played for a while with a hamstring injury it didn’t disrupt the team. You have to back your backup players and Pieter did a fine job out there.”

The Canes welcome back All Black centre Conrad Smith and utility back Tamati Ellison, who made his Kiwi debut at the end of last year. While both teams had to cut down on training earlier in the week because of extreme hot conditions, another test awaits the strong Stormers defence this weekend.

“The patience was there and the guys understand that defence could be the safety valve for bail-out if you make mistakes on attack,” Coetzee said.

“And I think with that mindset we’re improving every week,” he added yesterday.