it was incompetance & bias imo - who makes the decisions on who will officiate games ? would McBanana have had any say in the matter beforehand ?
It wasn't even a question of 'interpretation' of rules by NH or SH refs - to me it was gross incompetance & dare I say,cheating...everything was set up for a Aus v NZ final
I honestly felt the game would have been refereed fairly but I was wrong - we were conned and were never going to win that game even making allowances for the english errors etc
I'm proud of the england team & coaching staff - they didn't let us down and deserved better

so next year, will the Australians agree to the same rules on this of the world?
so we will have English refs all seven games!!!!!!!
or we the English fans will not pay to watch the cheats from down under.

I actually agree with you OD,I must be getting old.

I'm more inclined to go down this path personally. I don't want to put a penny into the Australian game anymore. Feck 'em.

whingers

I did warn you several times but you said (rightly) it was unfair to pre-judge.

I'm not saying I told you so but............
[i"dear sanjunien.

You are missing a fairly important point or two in the the aussies will only accept their own match officials as being good enough which is utter crap.
The real reason is because they nor I have never seen an aussie ref giving his own team a "hard time".
Remeber when they changed the IRLB rules for australia to allow their own VR "observer"? WTF was thart about.

Things to look for are

Cheating aussies didn't have the confidence to beat us unaided.
Even the League Express made a big front page and editorial thing about this.
I hope and believe NZ will stuff them in the final.

yes,you told me so and it sickens me to think the ref & VR would be THAT biased - I was totally naiive cos' I thought decency still exisits in the RL world - clearly it doesn't down under.
I promise to take seriously any of your future comments before pre-judging...
problem is,how de we change the situation so it doesn't continue ? - can't see the point of fans boycotting games- the dialogue has to be at the highest level to ensure complete neutrality amongst the officials - that can only come from pessure from the RFL ie 'we demand neutrality,or we don't play' end of...
sorry for doubting you - Come on you Saints !

Could an answer be to utilise the NRL's use of 2 ref's and have one from each country officiating?

We will always been seen as Bush League until we get neutral referee's.

No probs sanjunien. The whole thing stank from the very start. The independant and the gaurdian have been on about it i.e. the international game lacks credibility because of these childish/arrogant tactics.
The only way it will stop is for the RFL refusing to participate until neutral refs and VF are appointed to every international game.

The thing that has really upset me is Sheens's complaint that the ref was letting [sizeus[/size get away with holding down!
It's like robbing a house and complaining that the housholder didn't leave tea and biscuits out for them.

Stupidly I thought there was some integrity to the game and that the referee would be impartial despite his origin.

I was wrong.

The lack of a neutral referee and the decisions that were made has made the international game a laughing stock, lacking in credibility.

yes naiivly, I fell for that idea of impartiality too - the whole thing stinks and the RFL has to act to prevent the likes of it happening again - but will the RFL be big enough ?

The problem here is that if any changes are made to appointing neutral officials in all future games is going to be an open admission by the powers that be that a mistake was made and they are a bunch of idiots.
Can't see that happening any time soon though.