The most bizarre one for me was Cameron Smith clearly tapping the ball with his foot. That should have been play on.

I'm not blaming the ref for the last 40 years. As I said, I don't mind getting beaten of great Australasian select XIII sides that tear teams to bits with amazing skill, that's great to watch. I do mind getting beat off a fat bloke with a mullet. The current Australasian select XII are poor, and are worried that after losing the RLWC, they will lose this. Only one thing for it, get the rich boys in and make the officials rich.

Tap.

Ref- 'James Graham's going to flatten you mate.'

Cam Smith- 'I've changed my mind ref, we'll kick for goal.'

Ref- 'That's fine Cammy lad, those are the rules'

James Graham- 'Ref?'

Ref- 'Don't argue with me James, i'll sin-bin you'

The reason I don't like the international game that much is because we are letting it dictate or domestic game. We are now frowning at teams when they sign Australian players ahead of English players (who cares ?) and the fact it also runs the risk of the players playing too much over the course of a year.

I really think the best thing to do is just have a GB team play the Aussies or Kiwis every four years and just leave it at that. Lets be honest the rest of the international scene is a joke. Being allowed to play for more then one country, Countries full of players who ain't actually born in that country and not to mention the biased referee's.

What good would having the kangaroos win year in year out do for the international game?

If anything the officials would be instructed to bring the contests closer

I don't think the ref was too bad tbh, the Smith tap restart was a bit unprofessional because you expect the refs to stick to the rules, and there was one try from a blatant forward, but the rest were 50-50. The BOD try after the Cronk knock on was a video ref mistake not a ref mistake (I don't think the Aussies themselves were really convinced by that one).

And yet here we are.

not corrupt just incompetent!

The same reason that players are who commit to Origin are told that they are barred from playing for other countries. The same reason that Costigan was stopped from playing from PNG this year despite being eligible, and other players have been stopped from playing for the likes of Samoa and Fiji. It's because the ARL are incompetent, corrupt dinosaurs. If you think they have any interest at all in even preserving let alone developing international RL then you are kidding yourself. They are dinosaurs and their sole intention is to maintain Australian dominance.

I think you’ll find that there’s a corruption underbelly in anything that’s mainstream in this society.

Remember when a few NRL players got shot at in the off season a few years ago?

That’s what happens if you don’t throw games for criminal overlords who decide the games winners and loser given the chance. Thankfully more often than not good beats bad!

Good post, also how did Adrian Lam get to play Origin?, had he already represented P.N.G? did he continue his international career after?

Do the A.R.L change the rules when they see fit?

first things first we were a poor second best this morning,however we got nothing from either the official or the video ref again and tbh its embarrassing for our sport that we allow such things to happen.

Yes, I think that also applies to their referees too

I'd roughly agree with that.

I genuinely believe that our full time referees are a hell of a lot better than the NRL equivalent. Some of the calls they have given over the past season have been dreadful.