Get him reffing the final. The Aussies will love him.

My thoughts exactly

For those who witnessed the NZ v Australia game and thought it was the best game they had seen for a long time then tonight's performance by Alibert was the worst referreeing display at international level for years.

Those who saw Alibert cut his teeth in the lower leagues knew he wasnt ready for SL never mind internationals. Once again the RFL show us that they will fast track anything whether its good for the game or not.

He was very poor today. If England had lost He would have been a huge talking point considering the number of penalties New Zealand got.

Or super league level for that matter. He should be

As daft as it sounds, I'd rather have him next week than Shane Hayne. If we play the same tactics around the ruck like we did defensively tonight we are going to get penalised again and again.

I don't see whats wrong with Leon Williamson. He has really impressed me so far.

at least it wasn't silverspud

He was awful for both sides as someone has mentioned.

He is not a referee for the highest level - too inexperienced.

Steve Ganson to referee next week IMO.

I agree, he reffed well today.

Awful today not up to this level.
I dont normally agree with Sky but i do here he should not of been put in charge of such a big game.

I actually felt a bit sorry for him tonight. He was clearly out of his depth (especially at the back end of the first half). Let that much go/be so inconsisitent in the NW Counties and stand back and watch the fireworks. I think you have to look at who gave him the game in the first place.

Alibert was poor tonight but are you all forgetting Bill Harrigan?
He was awful beyond belief but got away with it.
Wrong decision after wrong decision from him, coincidentally all going the Aussie or Kiwi way.
Of the two I'd rather have a genuinly poor ref like Alibert who makes mistakes both ways than what Harrigan and later Mander served up.
Is no one been surprised that since the Aussies have not had an NRL man reffing finals they've had difficulty winning them?

2005 Tri Nations lost 24-0
2006 Tri Nations drawn at full time won in extra time.
2008 World Cup lost.

If there's one good thing in us having full time refs has brought, it's that SL refs get to be in charge of finals where Australia & New Zealand compete.
Ganson must get the final, after all Hayne is not used to refereeing matches where he's the only ref out there. Hayne's not good enough anyway!

Anyone remember Robbie catching Keef in the air, also Eng/GB vs NZ, also at Huddersfield, eleven years ago. Awesome bit of athleticism, but totally illegal. Harrigan gave the pen but not the penalty try that would have won GB the game.

Yes. I thought of it when the similar incident happened today. We were done that time, but overcame it this time.

I agree. What exactly do Touch Judges do apart from mark the 10 & put their flag up for a conversion? They don't even bother to put their flag up if a player goes into touch anymore, especially if theres a VR,
What are TJs? Are they trainee refs? or are they refs that haven't made the grade? Are they full time professionals?

I was at the match and he didn’t do too badly. Armchair fans really don’t see a full picture..

Which match?

I was at the game and Allibert was WOEFUL.....no other word for it!

England v New Zealand.

As far as I’m concerned he made a few mistakes like people do but his decisions didn’t affect the game whatsoever. Its just the same with people complaining about how anonymous Tomkins has been tonight - it didn’t affect the outcome of the game whatsoever.

England rightfully won the game through a fantastic team performance via Sinfield and the pack. Anyone who criticises an England player on the pitch tonight needs to take a long look in the mirror. People certainly need to stop obsessing about the refs as well.

Some people on these forums would have robot players and robot referee’s!

The reasons his decisions didn't affect the game is because they were equally shocking across the board.

Not sure Tomkins was anonymous, thought he had a good game.. Marshall was anonymous

Keep hearing how fantastic Marshall and Hayne are and all we’ve got over here is shadows of the reports!

Just got back from the game where I was perplexed at some decisions. Justifiably so too. Watching it back now and he is way out of his depth.

With PNG replacing France in the Four Nations next season, does that mean we're going to lose Alibert and get a PNG referee instead? Seems only fair . . .

He's a Kiwi referee. Therefore, under the ARL's own rules, he is somehow ineligible to referee any Australia game that involves either GB/England or New Zealand.



Leon Williamson has been pretty good all tournament, but due to his nationality and the fact that he'll never get the chance to referee full time (because no-one will give him that chance!), then he'll be denied the big games.

It was funny back in 2004 when Glen Black refereed GB v Australia twice in the Tri-Nations. The Ockers were absolutely livid and demanded that he be removed, but for some bizarre reason, someone acutally grew a set of balls and stuck with the appointments.

A few months later, the ARL offered a "position" in the NRL to Glen Black. However, there were catches (surprise suprise). They wanted him to relocate his family to Australia, they wanted him to train under Robert Finch and they wanted to start him in the NSWRL Premier League and he would be eligible for promotion to the NRL "based on performance"........which bascially meant that he was in the hands of the ARL who would make the career decisions for him. He would never have made it to the NRL because the ARL wouldn't have given him that opportunity.

Needless to say, Black stuck to his guns and told the ARL to **** off.

No, probably means we will get another sub standard Ocker referee.

Probably that **** Tony Archer.