Western Force coach Tim Sampson has confirmed that they sought out officials over the Brumbies' controversial scrum tactics.
In their previous matchup in Round Six, the Force were dominated at scrum time as the Brumbies raced out to an early 28-0 lead.
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Across their five scrum feeds in the game, the Force were successful just once, leading to coach Tim Sampson issuing a 'please explain' to officials after the game.
In his pre-game press conference ahead of Saturday's Qualifying Final, Sampson accused the Brumbies of deliberately employing tactics to weaken the scrum in order to cause the subsequent turnovers.
“We were very disappointed when we played them here, we got penalised a fair bit around scrum time,” he said.
“We addressed that pretty quick with the officials in the week after the game. We’ve been pretty clean there around scrums, we give away minimal penalties at set piece time so we’re pretty comfortable there and our line-out has functioned really well.
“They came in with some certain tactics in that game. One thing that officials look for is stability at the feed, we thought that particular night there was a lot of movement before the ball went in and that had an impact on the scrums.”
When asked about the result of the enquiry, Sampson hinted that he had the officials' on his side.
“They assessed it themselves that night and I think they agreed,” he added.
As the club continue their dream run into the Finals, Sampson is confident that they can continue into the Final, labelling the Brumbies as 'clunky' over the past weeks.
“We’re riding a wave at the moment and we’re in a good position. I think the Brumbies over the past couple of games have been clunky,” Sampson said. “The belief has been there since Round One and it hasn’t changed yet.
“We’ve got to control what we can control and that’s maintaining possession for long periods of time.
“They infringe a lot in all areas of the game so we’ve got to hang onto the ball for as long as possible and play in some good areas."
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It’s do or die for both the Brumbies and Western Force this Saturday night in Canberra. Catch all the finals action ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport as well as simulcast live on 9Gem, click here to purchase tickets.
