was the ref the worst official we have ever seen?

[exile in Tiger country]

Tony Williams head shot on Westwood straight red, no messing. Where he thought Westwoods shoulder was I have no idea, he needs an anatomy lesson.
the briscoe no try. why not check with the VR?
Sam being lifted through 270 degrees, alright his head was on the floor, but it was still a penalty.
The convicts constantly got away with holding down, where England were penalised if the held on to a tackle for a nanosecond.
In the immortal words of Comic Book guy "Worst referee ever!"

[thegimble]

Tony Williams head shot on Westwood straight red, no messing. Where he thought Westwoods shoulder was I have no idea, he needs an anatomy lesson.
the briscoe no try. why not check with the VR?
Sam being lifted through 270 degrees, alright his head was on the floor, but it was still a penalty.
The convicts constantly got away with holding down, where England were penalised if the held on to a tackle for a nanosecond.
In the immortal words of Comic Book guy "Worst referee ever!"

I watched 30 min of the second half and the way he was reffing i think he had an agenda. NRL is his bread and butter so he did them some favours.

Worse ref not sure worst but for an international standard ref he was appalling.

[bourbon_rat]

The convicts constantly got away with holding down, where England were penalised if the held on to a tackle for a nanosecond.

Must have watched a different game to me :doz:

Henry P had a shocker with the disallowed try,but I don't think the high shot was a send off.

Australia spent almost 70 minutes with 16 men & playing a 2nd rower on the wing & England didn't capitalise on it ?
Instead we had people like James ' my back hurts' Graham,etc evening up the numbers

And no mention of the wonderful 'I'll kick the ball away on 1st tackle' brain fart from Chase

[MrDave]

And no mention of the wonderful 'I'll kick the ball away on 1st tackle' brain fart from Chase

Only seen the highlights but if your referring to him trying to get a scrum attack further down the pitch from the restart then fair play to him. I would rather someone took gamble to beat the Aussies then do nothing, it was worth a go, it didn't come off but it didn't cost England the game.

England certainly looked a very dynamic and talented team.

As for the referee I think you have to be fair, non of his decisions cost England the game, by the looks of things he didn't ruin what was a good spectacle. It was only his second International match as a referee and his previous was England v Wales so it was a big step up to referee England v Australia.

[lucky 13]

The convicts constantly got away with holding down, where England were penalised if the held on to a tackle for a nanosecond.

Must have watched a different game to me :doz:

Henry P had a shocker with the disallowed try,but I don't think the high shot was a send off.

Australia spent almost 70 minutes with 16 men & playing a 2nd rower on the wing & England didn't capitalise on it ?
Instead we had people like James ' my back hurts' Graham,etc evening up the numbers

And no mention of the wonderful 'I'll kick the ball away on 1st tackle' brain fart from Chase

We lost Ellis, Peacock played on with a dead leg. We missed Graham even though he's a Saint(or was) I would not doubt his pride for the cause, so 15 against 16?. I do think it was a missed chance, The head shot was fifty fifty seen players go for less. Chase was good until we lost our forwards then he fell to bits. Roby was good, Hall played his best game but Tomkins was the most dangerous player on the field a long time since I thought that about a British player against the Roos!! we did better than I thought..... we could have won.

[Panchitta Marra]

If Chase has a brain explosion at least get it somewhere near right. The ball was nowhere near going out of play. He hardly hit the ball and there seemed to be plenty of touchline to aim for.

[eccywarrior]

does anybody agree that westwood was the weakest link yesterday? he was the fault to 2-3 aussie trys with the stupid penaltys he gave. he should never be picked over carvell or mossop.

[stevethegas]

Westwood ran his blood to water for the cause, and the "penalties" awarded against him were unfair given the treatment several of our players got - especially Sam. Watching the highlights before the match it was hard to see any difference between the tackle on Westwood and the one on Bradley Clyde by Shaun Edwards that got him red carded. Tony Williams should at the very least got a spell in the sin bin.
Though there is no argument that Aussie played very well, they needed to. England were actually very good, and I suspect may even have won but for the interventions of a poor referee.

That said, we can (if we play really well) beat NZ and earn another crack at the Aussies. In two games we might beat them once, and I'd much prefer it to be the next game than the one just played.

[yoda warrior]

I thought the ref had a fairly good game. Williams should have been sent off and the Briscoe try probably should have been given but i'm talking about the way he went about the game. Last week we were robbed of what could have been a great game by Mr Bentham allowing both sides to hold on for an eternity and the ruck consequently degenerating into an absolute mess. Saturdays game was a far better spectacle, largely because the ref showed from early on that he was willing to penalise at the ruck.

Also i think the game should be encouraging more former players into refereeing.

[stevethegas]

I thought the ref had a fairly good game. Williams should have been sent off and the Briscoe try probably should have been given but i'm talking about the way he went about the game. Last week we were robbed of what could have been a great game by Mr Bentham allowing both sides to hold on for an eternity and the ruck consequently degenerating into an absolute mess. Saturdays game was a far better spectacle, largely because the ref showed from early on that he was willing to penalise at the ruck.

Also i think the game should be encouraging more former players into refereeing.

Well Yoda, you must have the force with you (or watched another game), because actually the refereeing was poor. There is a patch of 20 minutes or so in the second half starting with Westwood being headhunted. During that period Australia got every 50:50, got away with lying on and upending our boys, and getting penalties that weren't warranted. And that's apart from the non-sending off, the non-try, the penalty given against us for playing the ball when the tackle wasn't completed, not allowing Peacock to play on after a ball came loose and the try line begging, and the same when we forced a goal line drop out when Reed had it stripped in a 3 on 1.

No, he had a shocker, and our noble and great boys were treated to some very unfair decisions at a time when they were in the ascendancy. But this result will still stand but leave a bad taste. Pity really because actually there was an awful lot of really good Rugby League from both sides.

So we'll have to live with this one. But if we are to beat Australia only the once this year, let's hope it's on the 19th.