Probably not, no. To be honest the atmosphere was utterly dire from the very beginning. I suppose you can't really expect much else when it's two 'away' teams playing, and the only chance of a half decent atmosphere was for the Kiwis to remain in the game. The moment that Australia started to build a big lead, it was always going to be a flat atmosphere.

Clear no try given as a try because ref called try and evidence allegedly unclear.

Evidence unclear if you ignore the fact the ball wasn't on the ground! What do these people actually see?

For all we lambast England for being poor I'm sure we'd have made a better fist of this than NZ.

Similar situation to the 2013 World Cup where im sure England had more left in the tank had they made the final. But England only have themselves to blame for bombing a winnable game at Huddersfield.

I'm not for a moment suggesting NZ don't deserve to be there. England really should have beaten the Kiwis but couldn't get over the line.
Given how a lot of people like to put England down I just wanted to make the point that they wouldn't have been this bad imo.

You can't be sure of that though. Just like someone couldn't be sure England would be worse.

Imagine nz kicking their goals and this try ruled correctly it would be 22-12 with 10 to play. Can't seriously persist with non-neutral officials.

I love it. Realists are now classed as doom and gloom merchant.

The reality is that there is nothing exciting about international rugby league - aside a few moments of brilliance from individual players such as Johnson and rare upsets e.g Scotland drawing against NZ. That's the best we can come up with.

40k crowd, a very good effort considering England didnt make it. In 2011 England - Australia got 34k for the final.

Worth taking an England game there next time round

No wonder NZ have gone off the boil they've had former kr defence coach involved in the back room staff.

I thought that's who I saw.

How on earth has he got that gig?