Stormers in glass houses: Hurricanes coach hits back at dirty tactic claims

By NZ Herald

Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Gibbes has fired back at the Stormers’ claims of foul play in their opening round Super Rugby fixture, saying the South African side were living in a ‘glass house’.

The Stormers handily beat the Hurricanes 27-0 in Cape Town, scoring four tries in a rout of the New Zealand outfit.

However, despite taking a large win, Stormers head coach John Dobson voiced concerns about the match and told reporters he felt the Hurricanes resorted to dirty tactics.

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“I thought that was a mean-spirited game,” Dobson told media as he addressed his side’s start to the season. “It was very subtle stuff, but when we reviewed the game a few times we were more and more angry.”

Dobson said after reviewing the tape they noticed start flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit was given a hard time throughout the match, while he claimed winger Seabelo Senatla hair had been pulled a number of times.

“[The Hurricanes] are a good team so it was disappointing. You know, we’ve got Pieter-Steph du Toit who’s the world player of the year and if the way of dealing with that is through cheap shots then it’s a problem. I don’t think it’s good for rugby, to be honest.”

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When asked about the comments, Gibbes said he and the Hurricanes were blindsided by what Dobson had to say, and suggested the Stormers coach wasn’t in the best position to be casting stones.

“That’s a pretty big glass house there to be honest,” Gibbes told media on Wednesday morning (NZT).

“There’s a few things, a few clips we’ve looked at – TJ (Perenara) getting taken off the ball, guys having their head’s played – so I don’t know where he’s coming from with that but he’s entitled to his opinion.

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.

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