England unhappy at rookie referee as Wembley return turns sour

THE Rugby Football League are privately “seething” about a perceived continued lack of Australian support to the development of neutral international referees.

Fuming England head coach Steve McNamara could not hide his disappointment about the performance of New Zealand official Henry Perenara following some highly contentious decisions in Saturday’s 36-20 loss against Australia at Wembley.

His side must now defeat New Zealand in this Saturday’s encounter at Hull to force a re-match against the Kangaroos in the Gillette Four Nations final on November 19.

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However, they could be without captain Jamie Peacock (knee) plus fellow key forwards Graham Ellis and James Graham (both back) after they each suffered worrying injuries at the weekend.

Inexperienced Perenara – who, according to McNamara, “wrongly” failed to award Hull FC winger Tom Briscoe a try as England trailed just 18-8 in the 48th minute and refused to brandish a “dead-cert” red card to Tom Williams after the Australia second-row felled Ben Westwood moments earlier – only debuted in the NRL earlier this year.

His sole international appearance before the weekend was England’s opening Four Nations contest against Wales but McNamara accused the Australians of placing unfair pressure on him during the build-up.

Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens had publicly berated the performance of English referee Phil Bentham in their win against New Zealand and McNamara believes that affected the 31 year-old’s display.

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Sheens insisted his players decided the game and his views on Bentham had no bearing on Perenara’s handling of the game.

However, it is understood the RFL also believe such an inexperienced official should never have been appointed and, they say, it is only due to the Australians’ laissez-faire attitude to promoting New Zealand referees in their league that rookie Perenara found himself in charge of such a high-profile encounter.

The governing body here is investing time and energy into developing French referee Thierry Alibert but they claim Kiwis receive little such aid in the NRL, causing the current dearth of neutral officials.

Perenara put the Williams incident on report and that will be studied by an international match-review panel today although the Manly forward may be aided by Westwood’s surprisingly frank admission afterwards that he ‘milked’ the impact.

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Briscoe was deemed to have made a double-movement but the Kiwi refused to consult video referee Ian Smith despite desperate England players urging him to look at big-screen replays around the ground which clearly showed the player’s ball-carrying arm never touched the ground.

Despite their obvious ire, McNamara insisted he did not blame the blundering referee for their loss and his players were equally as magnanimous.

“It could have been a turning point but we made enough mistakes for that not to count and put us in that situation,” said Briscoe.

“It was down to our own fault in the end.

“I didn’t see it (the replay); I was too busy asking for the video ref.

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“I was a little disappointed he didn’t refer it. My elbow didn’t touch the floor and I just reached out and put it over.

“He saw it a different way and it’s his decision at the end of the day. It’s happened and I can’t change it.

“We put in a good performance but we’ll improve again now for New Zealand.”

Meanwhile, voting has begun to decide which legend should be immortalised in a statue at Wembley with Wakefield hero Neil Fox and brother Don, Hull star Clive Sullivan, Ellery Hanley, Billy Boston, Neil Fox, Lance Todd, Jonathan Davies, Alex Murphy and Shaun Edwards among those initially suggested.