Rugby
John Goliath, Special to ESPN 7y

Lions, Crusaders back under-fire Peyper for Super Rugby final

Rugby, Super Rugby

Crusaders coach Scott Robertson and his Lions counterpart Johan Ackermann have backed under-fire referee Jaco Peyper to call a good game in Saturday's Super Rugby final between the two teams at Ellis Park.

Sanzaar rewarded Peyer with the final for his performance across the season in accordance with its "merit-based policy", despite the South African's nationality and the fact that he came in for heavy criticism -- especially in the New Zealand media -- for his handling of the semifinal between the Lions and the Hurricanes.

Robertson revealed yesterday that the teams were asked to rate the referees ahead of the playoffs, and is adamant that Peyer is a quality individual who will call the match straight down the middle.

"Jaco is a quality ref. We got asked to rank our refs before this finals series -- who would be our number one -- and we said Jaco. He deserves to ref this final on that alone," Robertson told reporters at his team's Johannesburg base on Thursday.

"Sanzaar appoints the best refs -- doesn't matter who contest the final -- and we have to trust their selection and their selection policy.

"Jaco is experienced and he is resilient, and that is the foremost thing. He refs what's in front of him and he takes the emotion out of it. We can't ask for more than someone like Jaco, who has those capabilities."

Ackermann was quizzed on the same issue by New Zealand sports show host Glen Larmer on Trackside Radio on Wednesday. He admitted that a neutral referee may have been better, but said the players prefer the best referee to be in charge of such an important match.

"To me there is a flip side to that. As players you want to get selected because you know you are the best. In the same competition, and the referees are saying if they are going to be the men in the middle for 18 weeks, surely they must get rewarded to get the playoff games," Ackermann said.

"Last year we had Glen Jackson, in a Super Rugby final, in New Zealand. Yes there were one or two things that we questioned, but the ultimate score was a fair reflection."

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