I was shocked by how New Zealand played last night. I know they had a weakened team, but never expected them to try and win the game by using blatant housing tactics. The on report rulings where winding me up. How on earth does it benefit England in the context of that game? A penalty.. yet the players who are committing the foul can stay on the field and maybe get a ban for a game in the future which may not even involve England.

The NZ player may end up being punished in the end but England will gain no advantage whatsoever so what is the point?..

Went last night , watched it this morning, NZ cheap shots, well done England for not getting dragged into giving away penalties and retaliating, as for the refs, bottlers, on TV he said " forearm to the head, no more " no more should have straight red.
Looking forward to next week, let's we are not talking about the ref but I suspect we will be.

I have said it for a long time now and will say it again - the "on-report" is nothing other than an excuse for referees to cop out of making a decision - it is a disgrace to the game and should be scrapped. It started out as a reasonable idea but now has become utterly discredited.

Last night the incident with Chase was exactly why it should be binned - the referee can clearly be heard saying that he saw what happened - in which case he should have absolutely no excuse not to take action - in this case a red card. If Luke does not get a very long ban then the game is in a worse state that I thought.

I think T.Leuiuai was also shocked by the housing tactics used last night. Tommy could easily have caught Sammy on that last run, as Sammy was nowhere near top speed. Last "attempt" at a tackle was a missed (by a country mile) ankle tap by none other than Tommy Leuluai, who, playing for Wigan, would've executed perfectly without breaking a sweat.

exactly....ban it, and make the refs take action on the field.

Chase tackle was a disgrace....how many players did we have up before the beak for dangerous leg tackles?..non as bad as that.
and there was a blatant attempt at a chicken wing on Briscoe? that went completely un noticed (except by me)

OK - I can see why they don't use the video ref for potential 'on report' issues. Where do you draw the line? Set the line too low, and you risk the game being very 'stop start' with virtually everything being referred upstairs, with referees using 'suspected foul play' as an excuse for a second look at something they missed, where there clearly isn't any.

The ref is in radio contact with all of his match officials, so maybe - however this may be long winded - the referee needs to consult everyone, and if one is of the opinion that there was 'definitely' foul play, then the ref is allowed to refer it. Even better, maybe borrow the rule from NFL where the coach or the captain is allowed to appeal to the ref to refer the decision?

Luke 2 match ban, Smith one match. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1ng0d.html

Luke 2 match ban, Smith one match. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1ng0d.html

I've only ever seen the 'on report' option used correctly once.
GB were playing Australia at Huddersfield and the tocuh judge saw what he thought was a stamp by an Aussie whilst playing the ball but wasn't 100%. The ref stopped the game put it on report but because it was not clear that an infringement had occured played on.
The on-report as I have always understood it is a tool for the referee to highlight a potential incident but is not certain that anything untoward has actually taken place.....in other words if the referee or touch judge has seen an incident clearly enough to penalise it then he has all the information he needs to make a decision on any further action. Thus, in my opinsion, any incident warranting a penalty should never need to be put on report!

As for that clown allegedly refereeing on Saturday, how he could tell Isaac Luke that his actions were a deliberate act to injure a player and then not send him off is beyond me. What is worse is it now looks like he is going to get the final - the complete lack of accountability for the referee and his blatant deficiencies just goes further to damage the credibility of international RL!

The standards of international refs are very poor, ive just watched the game and the red card should have been shown at least twice to NZ players and the ref clearly bottled it

And, if you read the report, the NRL allows players to count pre-season friendlies against the ban - so they'll both be back for the first round proper.

In other words, no punishment at all really.

Add to that Tony Williams being banned for the Wales game he could well have missed anyway, and it's all a bit pointless.

XBrettKennyX posts something sensible...................................I need a lie down

I see the NZ players have now withdrawn their appeals.... though since they will be able to serve out their bans during NRL trial games it is hardly a punishment.

Once again RL has brought itself into disrepute. This is a complete farce of a system.