'Cheapshot' allegations made against Brad Thorn's Reds

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck has bemoaned the failure to punish a number of cheapshots by Reds players in their Super Rugby clash in Capetown yesterday.

The Reds were highly physical and robust during the match and the Brisbane outfit were lucky to get away with a number of high and shoulder charges against Stormers players.

The most notable incident during the match was when Reds prop Taniela Tupou clobbered into Stormers wing Craig Barry late and high with his shoulder.

Upon further review of the match footage, the Citing Commissioner deemed in his opinion the incident had met the red card threshold for foul play.

“I’m pretty frustrated. I think there were a couple of cheap shots earlier on in the game that were not recognised and dealt with,” said Fleck.

“I think we spoke about it during the week, they [Reds] are quite a robust team, but I think there were four incidents that come to mind that were not dealt with.

“Credit to our players for certainly showing composure in dealing with that. I think that we could have got more reward out of that, but that is something that we can look at and review on Monday.”

Meanwhile, despite the win, Fleck was disappointed with his team’s execution at stages during the 80 minutes.

“It was clear we were the dominant team, we dictated the game for the majority of it, but our execution let us down in the second half when we had so many opportunities.

“It is disappointing that we didn’t win by more, but credit to the Reds, they stayed in the fight, but the tries they scored were through our errors.

“Our boys dished out some good, hard play in that first half which set the tone, that gave us the advantage and we kept coming at them.

“Our scrums and line-outs and mauling were good and we got good go-forward, but just that final pass went astray, so that is something we have to focus on,” he said.

Fleck is hopeful of having a number of backline players who missed the Reds clash available to face the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld next weekend.

“Hopefully Dillyn Leyds, SP Marais, JJ Engelbrecht and Jano Vermaak will be back, it doesn’t look like Dewaldt Duvenage is going to be passed fit, he has hurt his rib.

“There is good continuity in the forwards and they are going pretty well, the midfield is also going pretty well

“Getting those combinations right and getting the final execution will stand us in good stead going forward,” he added.

CREDIT: rugby365com & @THESTORMERS