How the video ref never saw that knock on by Cronk was unbelieveable,benefit of the doubt,bo11ocks,jusy blatant cheating.

How Archer missed that Lewis forward pass to Cronk when he was more or less on line with the pass again,just blatant cheating.

And yet he saw the Goulding forward pass to Cudjoe in the 1st half which was marginally forward,the RLIF need to get some balls and stop the Aussies from dictating on who and who can't ref,it's getting beyond a joke.

That is no suprise at all. They won so it was fair as far as they're concerned.

I remember when the Aussies got Morley sent off in the first tackle of a series and put us right against it from the start....the Aussies are corrupt and control the game, they are like the freemasons of rugby league

Sad but true.



Unfortunately, only a small number of us Australians can think for ourselves (much as elsewhere I fear). The rest are strung along by journalists seriously wanting in credibility.



Frankly the Australian commentary, even from the usually good Peter Sterling, was dire. Phil Gould confirmed his papers should have been marked "never to commentate on international rugby league ever again" long ago.



Morley was stupid btw.

Ganson sent Morley off........are you suggesting the Aussies paid him to do that?



As a neutral, I watched last nights game in stunned silence......there were a number of decisions that beggar belief but in all areas, the Australians seemed sharper. Yes, Refs mistakes can influence the flow and therefore the outcome of a game, but anyone who thinks that England would have beaten the Aussies regardless of the howlers needs their bumps seeing to.

International RL is a joke at the moment and the IRLF need to take a long look at where the game is and where they want it to go. Refs will only come from countries that play the game and that narrows down the options open....NZ, Australia, England are the three main countries where refs need to be full-time. with other countries encouraged to recruit and train refs.....Referees need to be paid by a central organisations and placed in different leagues. Full-time professionals will go where they are told, so English refs should do stints in the NRL and crims in SL.

Instead of the NRL and Superleague doing their own thing, the game needs a central management.....same rules across the board...1 or 2 refs...not different wherever you happen to be playing.

Until something is done about the refs, the game will continue to be a joke.......Neutral refs for all internationals.......otherwise, as has happened here, you will get pages and pages of threads about the ref and how bad he was when the real problem, the standard of the English team will be overlooked.



Just in case you missed it...England were pretty much second best in all areas yesterday......the lack of centres is a real worry and whilst you can't fault them for effort......effort is never going to be good enough to beat the Aussies...

I said during the England v NZ game thread that only about 1% of games are really decided by the referee.



Archer and Co were probably within the 1%. They were that bad. Worst I have seen in international football for decades.



The gap on any given day between the big three remains such that conditions, referees and home ground advantage are major factors. I might add I mentioned the neutral refs issue prior to this tournament as an on-going cause for concern. That has been my view since they were dispensed with at the behest of my countrymen on the 1994 Kangaroo Tour.



My thoughts on the lack of composure issue for England (a failing caused by a lack of week in, week out intensity) are well known here but neutral refs remains a major blight on the RLIF and its lack of governance.

spoke to 2 guys that watched the game today and they both thought the ref. wasnt the best.



still ganson got the last final so this was to get even.



every 50/50 calls went against the poms which made the scoreline much worse than it needed to be

The awful benefit of doubt try turned the game, England on top with a 20m restart would have created a more balanced scoreline.

The ref performed to script, early penalties, give field position and tire them out defensively was the order given to him and he performed brilliantly.

They dont need the help FFS

Difference being he didn't perform like a bias clown.

And calls for neutral refs should REMAIN defeaning.



Frankly, that remains the low point of the tournament.

After today I'm more inclined to say it doesn't matter who refs an internationl, their nationality is irrelevant, what matters the most is whether they are good enough.



Archer was absolutely shocking. Alibert and The Klown are who I regard as the two worst refs I've ever seen. But, Alibert was fast-tracked a little too quickly through and its clear to see the bigger stage gets to him. The Klown had an inflated sense of ego and at times looked somewhat bent or, if not bent, had preferences.



Archer, I've concluded after today's match, isn't biased. He's just really, really poor. Poorer in fact than Alibert and The Klown. Some of the decisions were really dodgy, but the main issue was that it was clear in the first half that Aus were really trying hard to start a fight and NZ equally matched them with niggliness. Why he didn't have a word with the captains to settle the teams down I don't know. Thankfully it didn't kick off and ruin the match.

Rubbish.



That is EXACTLY what the ARL/RLIF would hope people will think.



NEUTRAL REFS is the moral of this story (2010 4N). That and how close the top 3 are and especially Australia and New Zealand.