Probably. That's the price they had to pay for choosing their own officiating team. If it came down to a close call in a close game there were going to be eyebrows raised. Comes with the territory. The suspicion, fairly or not, is that Australia would have got the call at the other end.

It's not the worst decision I've ever seen, though I do think strictly it was a try. It just looks like a victory for politicking as much as it does a sporting one.

Again- since when did players celebrations determine try/ no try?

My suspicion is that Hall knows he touched it but didn't think he'd grounded it. He therefore didn't appeal in the hope the ref would give the drop-out.

*edit* Just seen a post-match interview with Hall and that's exactly what he says.

The refs are decided by a three man panel.

Jon Sharp is the English rep.

Australia and NZ both get a ref to cover their games.
Aussie ref Aussie game.

NZ ref NZ via Samoa.

Go figure who gout outvoted about independent refs

Just having a look at the Australian media. Some fine pictures of what happened either side of the incident but no attempt to show the actual grounding. The apologists and quislings are using the images to "prove" that the ball was not touched down. The whole façade is up and the official line is that the video ref made a great decision and that the best team won, and even if they cheated then it was the "right" result so it doesn't matter. The Australian(newspaper) even comments that though we have a considerably better points difference, even if England beat New Zealand they are unlikely to go through to the final. The arrogance of the Aussie media is astounding, or are the conspiracy theorists right?

True. But it is irrelevant. The VR shouldn't make a decision based on the player response.

This is spot on. We've embarrassed ourselves by agreeing to it in the first place. Having been given the chance to referee their own team the Aussies will never let us down when it comes to ensuring the "right" result.

Oh I agree entirely, but it explains why Hall didn't go crazy appealing for a try.

Speaking as a ref, who normally defends refs, the following observations can be made :

1) That was a try under the rules of the game. None of this "in Super League" . The rules are clear - downward pressure on the ball by any part of the hand or arm is a try. It was a try, 100%. The decision was the worst example of blatant corruption I have ever seen at international level, and the video referee should be banned from reffing anything other than park football again. It was shocking. Sickeningly corrupt. I would be ashamed to be involved in that decision. Disgraceful.

2) The cheated try will gain most column inches, but where the Aussies petulant demand for their own biased referee really paid off was in general play. On several occasions when the Aussies in the second half were coming to the end of a set without having made their 40 metres, a penalty was given for a spurious interference offence. This allowed them to clear their half and gain field position. England received no penalties - not a single one - for the same offence in the same period, despite plenty of examples of interference as bad or worse than those which threw a lifeline to a struggling Aussie side. The referee's refusal to award any penalty for clear interference offences to the English side was outrageous, and was instrumental in ensuring that the Australians gained the position to score their second-half tries, while also denying the English side any field position until the last five minutes.

Taken together, the corruption of both video referee and onfield referee in favouring their own, home, team, was easily the most disgusting thing I've seen in international rugby league in forty years. Every single Australian official and administrator should feel ashamed of what transpired today in Melbourne. I feel sickened by it, and by them.

Also not forgetting when Widdop chipped, about 3 times, he was tackled American football style to prevent him getting the ball.

I'm more angry and disgusted at the refereeing performance than the VR decision!!!! Just do much went on.

RFL don't have bottle to kick up a fuss

Every time England play the Aussies there's also biased cheating refs because the Aussies do what they do best and whinge until they get their own way. Even the Kiwi refs are shockingly bias so it makes no difference.

The only way this will stop is if the RFL outright refuse to play against the Australians anymore.

As they think Origin is the pinnacle of R.L they may be happy with that.

The best and only way to respond is to win the next two games and then stand back and watch the Aussies winge big style. England can win this tournament. They now have two huge disappointments to motivate them i.e. the last second WC semi defeat against NZ and now this against Australia. The fat lady hasn't sung yet!

I have sympathy for the video ref because he would have been lynched had he given a try.

I was enraged at the ref being Australian but. Having watched the match I have little or no complaint with the official that reffed this game.
To claim the last gasp was a certain try is not really credible, it could have been but there could not be much argument with it not being given either.

We would have been far more vociferous had Tomkins scored the one that Inglis had disallowed had the role been reversed and I would have been claiming cheats myself over it, that rule is crap and should be done away with, I thought it a perfectly good try and that it should have stood.

Although I will contend and tend to agree that had it been the aussies who did have the last gasp chance of winning with that incident then it may have had a slightly different outcome.

We played the second half far to conservitently and let them off the hook by doing so. The game was ours at half time and we threw it away. Robbie Paul also hit the nail on the head by stating" the Australians began to play like an Australian side can do, we let them and they did.
Nobody really had a poor game for England but RU tactics and habits from Joel Tomkins were responsible for their first try.

Again a very good test match which we should and could have won but did not.

We did the same against samoa. In a position to take control in the second half, but let them back in. Had we done what we should have done against samoa, we wouldn't have to worry about points difference next week. We'd only need to win. I hate all the whining and moping on here, another hard luck story. Our destiny is still in our own hands. Beat NZ by 2 scores next week, and right todays wrongs against australia in the final. We can still have the last laugh.

They seem to want to kill off international RL, And just have origin and Tasman tests

5-0 pen count to the Aussies in the 2nd half was a big factor in the Aussies 'playing like an Australian team'

Not saying they weren't pens, but surely the Aussies weren't 100 % clean in the 2nd half?

Widdop tackled well aftevkickingbthe ball being blatantly obvious.

Despite all that We actually score at the end it it gets chalked off.

Pathetic Australian bullying blinkered vision.

You can't just dismiss the part the officials played in that game today. Slowing ruck down by both teams. Only england got penalised in second half for it . How england were only awarded one penalty ( and that was for obstruction) in second half is beyond me.

I agree about the rule being crap and done away with, but THAT is the rule we played under today so this quote I a bit silly



However we played and whatever the reff did against us in open play, one point still holds true............The disallowed try was grounded by Hall. It matters not if he only gets a finger tip on it (even his little finger) The evidence is there for ALL to see and those that can't see it or either blind................( or in the VR's case ) just cheats, plain and simple.

If the video ref took Hall's reaction into consideration at all, then he needs reprimanding.

Anyone that watched NZ v Samoa will have seen Jesse Bromwich (I think?) score a perfectly good try but the referee completely missed it! He just got on with it and played the ball.

You really should have. The penalties he awarded to Australia in the second half, and the penalties he didn't award to England, were crucial in determining the outcome of that match.



I'm afraid I have to disagree with you quite vehemently here. The rules are very clear - downward pressure on the ball by any part of the hand is a try. There was downward pressure on the ball by Hall's finger, and thus it is a try. I genuinely do not understand why some people are claiming this is somehow debatable. It was a 50/50 call for the on-field referee, which is fine - if he'd left it there then I wouldn't be on here crying foul, because at full-speed in the heat of the game, I certainly wouldn't have felt confident making that decision. But when the video referee looks at it, sees absolutely cast-iron 100% evidence of a finger on the ball while it is on the ground, and STILL claims no-try, then you've left the realms of judgement calls and entered into the realms of corruption and cheating. There is no argument about this - it was a straight out and out cheat. Disgraceful.





I have in the past made very similar calls. I think the reason I am so disgusted today is that actually, we WERE good enough today, and we DID do enough to win it. Our forwards beat their forwards, and our threequarters matched theirs. Only in the halves did they have the advantage. It's not often you can say this, but today the difference absolutely was the entirely one-sided penalty count for interference, and the corrupt video referee decision.

The problem with taking the "It's our fault, it was ours for the taking, let ourselves down" line is that whereas I used to think that was about being realistic about our prospects, I now think it's actually part of the cultural cringe of us expecting to lose, and refusing to believe we can win. Today, we were robbed - absolute highway robbery by a bent set of home officials. If that had happened to the Aussies over here, they'd be screaming blue murder from the head of the NRL to the lowliest bag-carrier, and they'd make damn sure that pressure was applied to ensure no repeat could ever happen. That's because they would start from the place where they believe they could have, and should have, won. When it happens to us, I think far too many of our British fans, players and officials start from the place of assuming that we were never good enough to win, and so we shouldn't make too much fuss because it's our fault. Yet today, we were the better team for most of that match, and the Aussies were effectively gifted the second half through the onfield referee, and then outrageously given an undeserved victory by the corrupt video referee. We damn well should be screaming blue murder. Not because we're whining and moping, but because we deserved that victory, and we should back up our players on the field with some courage and determination off the field too.

Those who argue that it's all in our hands, shouldn't make a fuss etc, are really just accepting failure. In this case, those who recognise robbery for what it is, are the ones who are demonstrating that our traditional lack of self-belief is shifting.

Fine post

Absolutely 100% sums up what I feel.

I can't understand why so many English are putting any blame on England.

Well put Roy.