JT's charmed life continues, along with the farce of non-neutral refs. Well done Dan Sarginson on retaining his place after a very strong first test - I'm the first to admit I didn't think he was up to it but always happy when English players prove me wrong!! www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leagu ... n-saturday

JT's charmed life continues, along with the farce of non-neutral refs. Well done Dan Sarginson on retaining his place after a very strong first test - I'm the first to admit I didn't think he was up to it but always happy when English players prove me wrong!! www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leagu ... n-saturday

It's an absolute joke, why not just have the Aussie ref the england game and Bentham ref the Aussie game

Bentham will go out of his way to prove he isn't bias and send off James Graham after 12 seconds.

Same 17 is an odd choice, but doesn't surprise me with Mcnamara. How can he justify still picking JT? I can only assume he doesn't spend time watching much SL.

I wanted to see Hardaker in there somewhere. I think he has the pace to cause a lot of damage to any team.

HTF can Bentham ever be seen to be impartial in this game.

This sport really is its own worst enemy

A farce. English ref so we've been treated "fairly." Trouble is he'll be so worried about appearing impartial he'll probably slaughter us !

Exactly my thought.
He'll be scrutinised to the hilt.

Bentham reffing England wont benefit us in the least.

Why is he good enough for NZ v England but not good enough for Aus v England?

It doesn't take a genius to spot what's happened .

It really wouldn't suprise me if the Aussies took all the rugby balls home with them if they didn't make the final, and the posts too. . .

This is so annoying - how hard can it be to appoint a neutral ref?

Won't be expecting any favours from Bentham, but there is a real danger he will subconsciously favour the Kiwis to be as seen as non-biased following Sunday's controversy.

Remember Phil, there's a nice holiday for the Anzac Test at stake here. Don't go upsetting the NRL, will you?

Oh and surprise, surprise, Sutton is the ref for the Aussie game!

You couldn't make it up.

Tim Sheens describing the decision 'Look mate, if the
Poms really thought they had the best ref, they would have been celebrating that all through the meeting, high five'ing and hollering. They just sat there and talked about stuff then gave in to our demand. So that shows we're right - about everything'

The ref wasn't good but, the main issue on Sunday was the VR.
Whoever we have this weekends needs to have a pair and a spine as Sundays VR seemed to be lacking both !

Lucky SM had the wisdom to retain the crash tackling centre KW.

What's all this about JT leading a charmed life? He announced that he would not be able to play for Australia. TS has not picked him for Sunday has he? I assumed that TS would retain CC and DCE, and play the excitement machine BH off the bench FFS!

Precisely - and THAT is what can so easily be avoided.

I have no problem losing fairly to a better side, and I can even accept a vital refereeing error if there's absolutely NO whiff of conscious or subconscious bias.

'Suttongate' just stinks and it's no surprise the Ockers are battening down the hatches with 'selected' images and venemous denial. And stoney silence from the authorities, again.

It's not as though it's just us 'Poms' who feel this way - I browsed an Aussie forum last night and the majority of posters (the reasonable ones), agreed neutral officials was an absolute must in order to avoid any doubt. Many even agreed Hall's grounding should have been given.

This is how I foresaw it the other day. The only neutral oppointment is Ian Smith VR for the Aussie game.

Basically, Bentham will give the 50/50 decisions to England. They will meet their "win by 10 point" target. Australia know they can smash Samoa, and with an Aussie ref it will make things all the more smoother.

England will reach the final, Australia will reach the final and both Sutton turds will be referee and VR for the match again.

Disappointed with both team & ref selections. Seems certain players will play regardless. There are better options for the 17 in most peoples opinion, I certainly would have liked to see Hardaker & Ratchford given a run, simply to make our attack a bit more potent. If Clark can do 80 then why isn't he? I'm sure the NRL will improve Hodgson in the future but he was poor against Oz. I'm happy to eat humble pie over Farrell but only McNamara knows how J Tomkins is still there. Winning this one by 10 looks a tall order to me.

As for the ref appointments.......