Waratahs unfazed by poor record under referee
New South Wales Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie says he has no concerns about referee Jonathan Kaplan, who will control tonight's Super 14 semi-final against the Hurricanes in Wellington.
The Waratahs have lost 13 of their past 14 matches under the South African official.
But McKenzie has described the statistic as "of little significance".
"We gave away one penalty against the Crusaders when he refereed us, five against the Chiefs, we had only five penalties we gave away last week. We are a very disciplined team, the Hurricanes gave away 17," McKenzie said.
"So we'll play the game in our normal style, and as long as that's reflected in the refereeing I guess we'll be comfortable."
The Hurricanes have the wood over the Waratahs, having beaten them last weekend to earn the right to host tonight's clash.
But McKenzie believes his side's strong discipline could give the Waratahs the edge in Wellington.
The Hurricanes gave away 17 penalties last weekend, but were still good enough to win in Sydney.
But McKenzie is predicting a better defensive effort from his chargers, and said ill-disciplined penalties could decide the result.
"We were a team that used to give away about 11 penalties last year, now we are around the six mark," he said.
"We've made a massive inroad in terms of playing the game in an undisciplined way. You'd like to think that gets rewarded.
"If you can defend well and not give away penalties, it's hard for teams to score against you.
"We obviously haven't defended as well in the last two weeks as we'd have liked but we've still maintained our discipline."
