Will they?

I highly doubt it with Australia wanting to perpetuate this ridiculous policy whose time has now surely come after ineptitude of the highest order from the Australian duo in the Melbourne match.

The Aussies ensure there are no decent standard neutral refs by refusing to have any NZ refs on the NRL roster. If someone like Williamson was invited to be a NRL referee then, just like we have Alibert, you'd have referees from 4 nationalities officiating in the top 2 leagues to choose from. Its still not perfect but it'd be a start.

IIRC the ARL offered Leon Williamson a job in Australia, as a NSW Cup official so he would have been forced to work his way up the system.

Can someone confirm that those officials are not full time? If so, would it be worth moving his family for a part time job?

I doubt we will see one article deal with this situation in Australia because apparently the officiating last night was acceptable.

A true disgrace and a blight on the RLIF as presently constituted.

Well that was big of them eh ? Perhaps we should have offered Alibert a gig in the National Conference League ?

He reffed in NL1 before coming to SL though.

Is there a pathway or roadmap for getting more international refs from a variety of countries qualified to referee top internationals. We, as a sport want to spread the gospel, and so with an expanded World Cup, so is there a plan to have anyone but someone from the North of England, Queensland or New South Wales in charge of important games at the 2013 RLWC.

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