SARFU denies Cats bias
March 27, 2001

The South African Rugby Football Association (Sarfu) on Monday rejected claims by the Hurricanes that the citing commission set up for their encounter against the Cats was biased.

Hurricanes coach Graham Mourie was furious after a citing commission found flank Jerry Collins guilty of foul play for a head-high tackle on Cats centre Eugene Meyer - an indiscretion he was suspended for for a week.

Mourie lashed out at the citing commission after they allegedly ignored calls by the Hurricanes to cite Cats players for stomping on Gordon Slater and Filo Tiatia.

The Hurricanes lost the match 18-15 in dramatic circumstances - spurning a kickable, match levelling penalty to go for the win in the dying seconds of a heated encounter. "We thought the whole process was parochial, biased and totally unfair," Mourie told NZPA.

But Sarfu general manager of policy and regulation Christo Ferreira emphatically denied that the Hurricanes had lodged such a complaint. "I reject that claim. The Hurricanes never reported anything," he said.

Ferreira said that he was contacted on Friday night after the Hurricanes refused to attend the 9pm citing meeting and that the commission only finished at 2am, after they said they would hold it in absentia should Collins fail to appear.

Collins did appear and was subsequently found guilty by a commission headed by Advocate Ian van der Merwe. Ferreira said that the respective citing committees were made up of independent commissions with no affiliation to any Super 12 franchise.

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