Agreed.

Perhaps England could provide the lead with a genuine campaign for neutral referees?

Their usual effort to get one of their own refs selected instead doesn't appear to be a very successful strategy.

Why then do Australia insist on (And get) Australian referees whenever they feel slightly worried about a game?

There are so many stupid quirks about this weekend. The referees were neutral last week. Australia lost. If they lost again they were out. So the referees were no longer neutral. Not only were they not neutral, they were related, which was absolutely ridiculous and a clear conflict of interests.

The reasoning given to the players was that the ball was moving upwards, that there was effectively no downward pressure because of this. The video evidence they showed over and over again and which is all over the internet shows conclusively that the ball was well sunk into the grass with absolutely no hint of it being on the rise. It was a ridiculously poor decision if it was a genuine decision and the reasoning given suggests they knew that.

If that incident happened in Origin or the NRL, it's given as a try. Plenty of evidence for that on the internet too. England need to kick up a fuss about it.

If the same incident had happened in the NRL or in State of Origin then it's a definite try, and the media over there would be talking about how it was a miraculous try to manage to put it down from that position.

Hardly sorted.

Same would apply.

French ref deemed incompetent and out of his depth by England or Australia or both.

Cue immediate abandonment of policy on neutral referees.

International RL wouldn't be the absolute joke it is today if it wasn't for the English and the Australians.

Incompetant or out of depth is better than biased or scared/corrupt

I am so used to seeing two video refs on Sky games.
Is there only one in internationals?
If so ...why?

We want two Sky video refs in internationals!

Perhaps you could start a campaign?

rlMeanwhile, in the real world...rl

Thanks for providing a link that provides nothing to the debate.

Duly noted and all that.

Clearly NZ refs will not do.

Feel free to flap your wings again though.

I can't believe the number of people moaning about this picture CLEARLY showing a British finger on the ball who haven't once commented on the fact that an Australian finger is also CLEARLY on the ball.

Blaming the video ref and the penalty count just excuses away the woeful performance of our halves in the second half.

They were utterly outclassed in terms of tactical thinking, organisation and cool.