Chiefs moving on from Cane yellow card

Coach Dave Rennie won’t question the yellow card shown to flanker Sam Cane which had the potential to sink the Chiefs in their gripping quarter-final against the Stormers.

The Kiwi side emerged 17-11 winners in Cape Town, overcoming the contentious sin-binning of co-captain Cane in the 60th minute.

The Chiefs were just one point ahead soon after the All Blacks flanker’s exit but tightened up admirably as the Stormers pressed for the lead.

Cane’s punishment was debatable after he and No.8 Michael Leitch crunched Stormers winger Dillyn Leyds with a double tackle in the chest/shoulder region.

South African TMO Johan Greef called for a review and twice overruled the views of referee Jaco Peyper, firstly in deeming a penalty was warranted and then a yellow card.

Rennie said the incident “absolutely” shouldn’t attract further judicial action but was careful with his assessment of the yellow card.

He compared it to a similar act and punishment for prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen in the Hurricanes’ win over the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday.

“All you want is consistency. We’ve got to accept the fact that there might have been shoulder contact with the jaw,” Rennie said.

“I was really just rapt with the way the boys stood up with one down.”

Rennie said victory was built on spirit rather than execution, noting his players largely struggled for cohesion.

He was keen for his team to win the territory battle and placed extra emphasis on defence, which had let them down in the 34-26 loss in Cape Town in April.

“We were able to choke them and cause a lot of turnovers,” he said.

“We probably over-kicked and we were a bit loose early.

“But this is play-off footy now. Even though the game was tight, I felt we had control.”

Rennie said his team were “excited” by the prospect of facing the Crusaders in Christchurch.

It is the second of what would need to be three wins on the road to claim a third Chiefs title.

“We wanted to be in contention with a couple of weeks to go,” he said.

“We’ve got a great group of men. They work hard for each other and they’re very tight.

“We know it’s a big challenge but we’re embracing that.”

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