As if the Aussies needed any more help for this weekend, Archer gets the Aus vs England Game.

How does that work then?
Why not Silverwood or even Shane Rehm?

Weren't the aussies the one's who would allow us to have an english video ref in the owrld cup and put in their own "observer"?

It stinks and brings the whole game into disrepute.
The RFL should be ashamed of themselves letting us be shafted yet again.

Yup.

Gotta love the poms.


Getting their excuses in early even before a ball has been kicked







An Aussie ref will be MORE lenient on England if anything to avoid people like you of accusing him of being biased.

What a load of toss. More lenient!?! Hmmmm

A well reasoned post this I'm sure you'll agree

Far from it.

Any 50/50 decisions where the call could go either way and he will give England benefit of the doubt. He won't want to be seen to be giving Australia an advantage because he is an Aussie himself.

So I think the Poms should be reasonably pleased with that one.


Far better for all concerned than to have a kiwi or French one...who lets be honest...are pretty ordinary.

What utter cr@p! I've yet to see an Aussie ref favour England/GB in any games they've refereed(sic).

Just one word for it bazzer - [size=150"CHEATS"[/size I hope you are proud of yourselves and your fellow crims.

The fact you think an Aussie ref will be biased against and England team indicates you also think an English ref would be biased against an Aussie team.

Neither is the case.


It's not like they have dragged Mr Archer out of Shepherds Bush Walkabout or the Church and stuck him on the next Qantas flight to Melbourne. And even if he does dislike the poms... why would he discriminate against them? On live telly... in a game thats being broadcast around the world...and in front of a big crowd?

We all have prejudices in life. I have plenty...as I'm sure you do.

But I can safely say I am a prejudiced non discriminator... and I would hope any referee is... whether its a French one, a kiwi one, an Aussie one or a pommie one.

Anyone that says they dont have any prejudices in this world is either an Angel or they are lying.

The important bit is not to be a discriminator too.


If anything Mr Archer will call those 50/50 decisions in the Poms favour... purely so the likes of you dont consider him a 'cheat'


If you lose on Sunday (which hopefully you will) then it will be down to the fact your team is garbage... not down to Mr Archer.

What a load of toss.
Wipe your mouth with bog paper for emitting such crap.

He wasn't even fair when we played NZ so now somehow he is suddenly going to lean our way on 50/50 decisions when we play his own national team - yeah sure. And the moon is made out of cheese.

You seem to have forgot that your team threw its toys out of its collective pram when we wanted neutral refs from NZ in our world cup match with you but then you lot vetoed it in a fit of the sulks on the arrogant grounds that no other national ref could ref to aussie standards.


You even insisted on having bill harragan (an even bigger pom hater) as a VR observer!!!
Mind you then as now, we deserve all we get for letting Oz get away with it.

Nothing wrong with neutral refs.

But they have to be good enough.


You know nothing about Bill Harrigan.

Other than being egotistic and self ed,no we don't Barry.

who gives a monkeys WHERE the ref is from - let's stop the whinging and judge the ref plus assistants after the game when the english will be emabarassed yet again cos' we're not good enough to compete with the best in the world - let's do as we always do,blame the RFL,McBanana,the uk climate etc etc

Classic good enough for Cons standards but not good enough for ours.

Translated means we know how he will ref it and we know it will give us even more of an advantage.

Return the favour next couple years, if we find the danglies

does seem a bit odd, aussie england game should automatically be a kiwi ref, dont know why you say they are not good enough! only reason you have no kiwi lads in the middle for NRL games is you insist they have to be aus based!! and if i am correctly informed Sydney

The better way of doing it would be the fair way Aus NZ games have a northern hemis ref, england games have a suitable ref for the opposition and same for PNG

I bet you lot would have whinged if they had announced Mr Silverwood as bloke in the middle

Why?

It doesn't matter. Get on and play the game.

It matters not for the accusation that Archer might or might not be biased but it matters for the credilbility of the sport. Just try explaining to someone with a passing interst in the game why the ref is from one of the competing countries. They'll laugh at you and tell you what an insular little game it is you're watching.

I don't think that is anywhere near the indication.

Australian referees have used 'interpretation of the rules' to the best advantage of the Southern Hemisphere teams and then when some of the rugby gods venture onto the shores of our grey little island they either coach english/sle referees to the 'expected standard' or kick up a stink until the RFL folds and gives them all their demands. The RFL is too weak in a lot these situations.

But it is now game on for the lads and they have to play whatever goes on the field.

Warranabsoluteloadobollox.

It's the same for both sides. Play the game and play it HARD.

"It's the same for both sides". What sort of t*ss is that?

It clearly is NOT the same for both sides.



That is the whole point of the post.
It would be the same for both sides if we had a neutral ref.

All the ref has to do is explain what he expects before the game.

who gives a f **k where the ref is from as long as he is seen to be fair - that can only be judged AFTER the game - you can't predict refs decisions or attitudes
it's a pretty pointless exercise to criticise officials BEFORE a match !

Are we the only supposed international sport in the world where the ref in the biggest game is from one of the competing nations? The Atlantic Cup is on in November and all three games will have a neutral ref. Why is the idea of a neutral ref so difficult for some people to grasp? It undermines the games crdibility if the ref is from one of the participating countries. It has nothing to do with Archer's ability to officiate it's about the appearance of the game which at the moment is Mickey Mouse. We only need to develop an international standard ref from three countries to always have a neutral ref. Is that a difficult task?

from that deludedpom you are inferring that a ref from a participating country is biased in some way - it's never been a great problem in cricket (except for a certain Pakistani umpire & Mike Gatting) so why should it be any different in RL ?
Phil Bentham had three good games in the recent Alitalia Cup series in france but i'm sure Thierry Alibert would have done just as good a job.
As I keep saying,wait till after the game and judge the refs performance accordingly.
regarding the Aus v Eng game on sunday the english players will have to be aware of the aussie refereeing styles which shouldn't be a problem for professional international sportsmen.Just don't use it as an excuse if/when they get stuffed.

dear sanjunien.

You are missing a fairly important point or two in the the aussies will only accept their own match officials as being good enough which is utter crap.
The real reason is because they nor I have never seen an aussie ref giving his own team a "hard time".
Remeber when they changed the IRLB rules for australia to allow their own VR "observer"? WTF was thart about.

Things to look for are: 50/50 decisions where you can't argue individual decisions being unfair or biased - you have to look at the weight or quantity of these. Also penalty count is no guide; look for penalties given in useless positions and times e.g. when in possession early in the tackle count near a teams own line.
If you want to be gullable then fine.