There are French and NZ refs.

The Aussies use the 'quality' excuse to get their own refs IMO. Also it puts pressure on neutral referees to ref the game in their favour because unless the Aussies get their way, the ref gets kicked out of international refereeing.

Small things make big differences at international level.

I think he is good enough to hold his own as an international back rower, mainly down to his defence. But at 6 you need to be able to threaten the defence with your running &/or passing, neither he is up to at that level. Much as Brown failed in the first 2 games I feel he is the only 6 we have out there. A pity Pryce, Eastmond, McGuire, even Sinfield for his vocal leadership, were not available.

the big mistake for me was taking both our 2 best players in Graham and Burgess off after 20minutes. At that point the score was 8:6....when they came back on after 35 minutes it was 24-8.

There was no real need to do that. Graham can play long minutes, so the 2 of them could have been spelled more effectively in that middle period.

For something a little less negative, I thought Luke Lewis was outstanding. I did make a call, I think before halftime in the PNG game, that I pick Lewis to come out as the best backrower of this year's tournament. As long as he starts every game, I obviously hold to that. He's not a bench player at all, like many Australians were calling for. But now he might be injured, which would be a great shame.

He missed the tackle for Burgess' try (though I don't know who could've made that one), but his 2 tries, 2 try-assists, 3 linebreaks and 8 tackle breaks completely nullify that one mistake. He runs great lines, is fast and agile enough to evade most opposition forwards, big and strong enough to break the tackles of everyone else. He's got ball playing skills and is generally one of the best defenders in any team he's in.

Fantastic player.

I agree on that, reminds me of Steve Menzies in his prime.

Wasn't James Child one of the assistant referees?

... but yes having a Aussie ref and an Aussie VR is just outrageous!