second best again!

[the grinch]

well yet again we managed to snach defeat from the jaws of victory and althogh some will blame the biase ref the truth is we are just not good enough this is the weakest austrailian team to come to our shores for a long time and they still manage to turn us over. this must be a lesson to us we cannot allow teams such as bradford to play so manny foreigne players we must bring our own talent thruogh to improve.and i say begrudgingly WELL DONE AUSTRAILIA

[Kev]

We need to learn how to put pressure on for the full 80 mins. I was pretty confident after last week (when it was 12 on 12 we were by far the better team). I was also confident tonight at half time but the convicts just never give up.I agree with you well done not just to Aus though but both teams the gap is narrowing

[mario]

if that is a weak side who out of the aussies should'nt have been there then? but if any body needed proof that an aussie ref would'nt have sent an aussie player off last week then they got it tonight!

[the grinch]

im not great on aussie players but i know andrew johns was missing and he is probably the best player in the world!

[mario]

Perhaps you've noticed how poor he's been this season then and how kimmorley wasn't!

[robjoenz]

I thought the Aussies did well to control Carney. Did you notice everytime they went for the tackle they pulled his shirt over his head so that he couldn't run out the tackle.

Have to agree that the ref was biased. As Faz pointed out, the number of 50-50 decisions that went against us took the mick. Although as someone else said we didn't quite seem to keep up the fight for the full 80.

[DaveO]

the grinch posted:
well yet again we managed to snach defeat from the jaws of victory and althogh some will blame the biase ref the truth is we are just not good enough this is the weakest austrailian team to come to our shores for a long time and they still manage to turn us over. this must be a lesson to us we cannot allow teams such as bradford to play so manny foreigne players we must bring our own talent thruogh to improve.and i say begrudgingly WELL DONE AUSTRAILIA

I will blame the ref because at this level you need something more even handed than we got tonight. Last week it was 12 v 13. This week at times it was 13 v 14.

I always thought (and said before the game) we wre unlikely to win the second test with an Aussie ref in charge which made last weeks defeat the loss that guarenteed the Ashes went back to Oz in my opinion. We needed to win the games reffed by our lot as you could be certain something significant would go there way from thier ref and so it proved.

Tonight Mander did not go the the screen for a try for which the player did not ground the ball properly. It proved a crucial decsion with a three point winning margin. Simple as that.

While they are still better than us we could have still won both games if things had gone our way and referees were a significant reason in both games why they didn't. Morely would not have walked in any SL or NRL game and that try would have gone to the screen in any televised match over here.

I don't think anyone is under any illusions about the relative strengths of the two teams but it does not make it any less galling to have officials scuppering the slim chance of a giant-killing act we had.

Dave

[Dorsey]

I noticed that too Robjoenz, there was no way that was accidental with Carney as they continually pulled his shirt over his head - have to get Lycra all in ones for the next strip! and well put Dave O you're quite right. It is time we had neutral referees for these games to take any suggestion of bias away.There is always going to be an element of panic to the matches when it is the best of three games and the first one is lost, pity the test matches can't be the same in rugby as they are in cricket - best of five - everything would be far less frantic and opportunity is there to give different players a chance. Very disappointing the team must be gutted to have got so near to winning on both occasions.

[mario]

can't understand why we don't have neutral referees. during the last world cup their was a french referee who was the best referee in the tourament so why not have him and maybe a kiwi. seem to remember the aussies being against neutal referees for obvious reasons

[mrs_carney]

That was the worst bit of refereeing (sp) i have ever seen (apart from the grand final)! I think it was sing that morley high tackled, but he was kneeling down, brian was stood up with th ball and still got smacked round the head but that wasnt high? It was a brave performance and hopefully, even though it doesnt matter, next week will be a better game!