When Bentham was getting his medal, he looked like he was being told his match fee was withheld because the Aussies didn't win. He didn't look happy walking down those steps.

A great game. But, given the strength of this NZ team I thought it showed just how good Australia are / will be in future. So many young kids, including at prop. (great game there). Nearly did it despite getting battered. If they'd had even a bit more possession in the NZ half Australia would have won - they looked like scoring every time, which was pretty impressive.

Overall great tournament.

I've also freeze framed the one brief look they gave of the put down and the ball was put down in the corner cleanly, but his whole body was over the sideline and it was impossible to tell if he was touching the ground from the shot, but it would be a miracle if he wasn't.

Shaun Johnson is already a greater player than Benji Marshall ever was. I thought that Johnson, despite his illegal punishment by late tacklers, completely outplayed Kellie Cherry and Troy Evans son, and also the distinguished Cooper Cronk.

Why are you bothering? I thought the golden rule for you aussies is that refs don't influence games, so even if it was a dead set try and you were robbed, it doesn't matter.

If it had been England instead, there would be a 50 page Moonie thread already claiming how they'd been robbed and cheated out of a win by bent and shoddy camera work.

Roy Haggerty would have probably kick-started the mega-whinge thread.

What is the point of your bigoted rant?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2eWlJiCUAA4rr3.jpg:large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2eWlJiCUAA4rr3.jpg:large

Perceiving himself to be English probably helps.

I agree.

It was never going to be easy even against a second string Aussie side.

Great game though.

Christ there are some miserable gits around. Despite the "poor attendances", the "Samoans aren't real Samoans" and the " poor Aussies" threads this was a great finale to a great tournament. It bodes well for international rugby league and what a boost for the Kiwi tour next year - England take on the current 4 Nations Champions. Good stuff.

I agree completely.

A fantastic end to a very competitive tournament.

New Zealand were the better side & deserved the win, but the disallowed try was a shocker, especially after they gave the Hunt one minutes before.

Some brutal hit-ups, classy ball handling & dogged defence, a great advert for the game

.

Australia's record with neutral refs in this tournament:

Played 2 - Lost 2

Every post you write is negative ,you put the game down at every opportunity .

You must be a blast on a night out.

Moonies accusing me of being negative?

You all need to resurrect another neutral refereeing thread whilst attempting to explain why England still couldn't manage a win with an English ref in charge

The last aussie try had two clear forward passes which were never called so the non try at the end balanced things up.
Good effort by the crims despite being battered in the forwards. On the tournament showing they need to get shot of Thaiday, he has being bang average in attack and not particularly great in defence.

Thought Bentham had a decent game but should have pulled up Australia for their messing about at the PTB and the obstructions on the kicker.

Agreed.

Thought it was a great effort by a third-rate Aussie team who were bashed by the opposition forwards, didn't see a great deal of possession and had to make a lot more tackles. The Kiwis made over 400 more metres too.

Astonishing effort to stay in the game which they almost won right at the end, but for BENTham's dodgy call of forward pass.

Vatuvei's outstanding performance today ought to nail a wing spot in the World XIII at the end of the year. No doubt the bumbling Ryan Hall will be selected by the Brighouse Brigade instead

Neural refs 2, third rate Aussies 0

I too thought he had a decent game. My one quibble would be that the Aussies weren't penalised once for the late hits on Johnson when kicking.

Wonderful game. I actually thought Bentham got the final call right so don't see an issue. I did think NZ had a couple of forward passes in the build up to their very first try though.

The games in this tournament have been really great. It's been a pleasure to watch the RL the players have put on show.

The main downside of the tournament for me has been the utterly ridiculous reffing of the Aussies late hits on kickers who have blatantly already kicked the ball. It's almost like there's been a new rule where if Aussies have made an effort and get within 4m of a kicker when he kicks it's okay, he can still carry on and do the kicker anyway.

Agreed.

Bentham's performance today on that particular score was a disgrace.

Wow, excellent game and a great tournament!

What a player Johnson is.

I think more disappointing has been the mysterious decision to use an entirely new set of rules and not tell anyone. Its an absolute embarrassment that the premier international RL competition this year has been refereed to a set of rules that don't exist. It hasn't been NRL, RFL or international rules, just a made up mish mash.