Flynn whines about Lions' scrum

Sunday 18th February 2007

Crusaders hooker and captain Corey Flynn claims that the Lions were scrumming "illegally" when they overpowered the defending champions in the set pieces during the Lions' 9-3 win in Johannesburg at the weekend.

Speaking to the New Zealand media Flynn said he felt referees need to be more "assertive" when scrums pack down.

This follows a game in which his team were penalised several times after being shunted backwards by a Lions scrum that is fast proving to be one of the most impressive in the competition - a scrum than includes two very young props, who are still just 21 and 22.

After the game Flynn called on referees to be clearer in their rulings during the new four-step engagement process.

"I think the referees are going to have to take a more assertive role there," he told The Press newspaper.

"You have teams that are jumping the gun and they were doing that to us and got us on the back foot. So good on them.

"But referees have got to stamp on it."

The Lions were always expected to target the Crusaders pack and with young Heinke van der Merwe (21) and Brian Mujati (22) in fine form, the Crusaders pack were always under pressure.

The defeat means the Crusaders have lost two of their opening three matches and face two more difficult assignments against the Cheetahs and Sharks in South Africa.

Being without their All Blacks means the Crusaders have lost many of their leading players, but Flynn said fans should still expect to see results.

"We are going out there to try and win, we're not going out there to lose," he said.

"It [the absence of leading All Blacks] is something we have to live with. We haven't got those players for seven weeks and there's nothing we can do about it."

Flynn admitted that the loss can be attributed to the fact that the Crusaders failed to turn their numerous opportunities into points.

"We created so many opportunities, we were on their line a lot of times. We just didn't capitalise," The Crusaders captain said.

"They've got a lot of heart, they showed it and we knew they would."