CHRISTCHURCH - Canterbury Crusaders coach Robbie Deans plans to raise concerns about the ACT Brumbies' "illegal" decoy running and scrum-binding tactics with referee Andre Watson before Saturday's Super 12 rugby final.
Watson said before refereeing the Crusaders-Brumbies round-robin game in Christchurch a fortnight ago that he did not have a problem with the Australian side's dummy runner system.
Nor did top New Zealand referee Paddy O'Brien, who controlled the Brumbies-Cats semifinal last weekend.
But the Cats' former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains has accused the Brumbies of "playing gridiron" and Deans also has doubts.
Deans said yesterday that the Crusaders would approach the final in a positive fashion and he believed the side which best "imposed its attack" would win.
He felt the Brumbies had created a "distinctive style" with their decoy running system and had "possibly taken it to the letter of the law.
"You only have to look at last weekend's [Brumbies-Cats] semifinal to see examples of that," Deans said.
"There's no doubt in my mind that they do have an intention to create an advantage by the positioning of their support players.
"You only have to look at that last try [in the 80th minute]. Have a look at Rod Kafer. The line he took was bizarre, to say the least. What was he trying to do, other than the fact that he intended to inhibit the defence."
Deans said the Brumbies had "really put a lot of emphasis on that and perfected it.
"They've been successful in getting away with it, just as they were with their scrum tactics against us in the round-robin.
"They used illegal binding methods to gain an advantage and they were successful at it.
"It will obviously be an issue we will be raising with Andre Watson."
Deans said the tactics were illegal, but were very difficult for referees to detect.
Brumbies captain Brett Robinson said yesterday that he was not aware of any concern on the scrum-binding issue.
"I'm not a front-rower so I can't really comment. But our front row have trained very hard under Ewen McKenzie, and have looked to capitalise on the skills they have," he said.
The decoy running issue had been "pretty much dealt with," Robinson said.
"As Paddy O'Brien said [last week], as long as the ball carrier is able to be tackled then that's fine.
"It's when a player obstructs the opposition from making the tackle on the attacking player that a problem arises.
"Not only the Brumbies, but all sides have made errors in that regard.
"Other teams have been playing it as well."
Robinson said the Crusaders had been using a backline move that "we first used a couple of years ago" and could be seen as a decoy.
He said the biggest factor behind the Brumbies' success was their greater ability to retain possession and "recycle phases."
Robinson is confident he will return from a chest muscle injury to lead the Brumbies against the Crusaders in his final Super 12 game before he resumes his medical career.-NZPA
Rugby: Deans queries `illegal' tactics
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