England's fightback stalls as Brown 'try' is ruled out

Controversy continues to rage over Kevin Brown's disallowed try which abruptly halted England's second-half fightback as they went down 24-10 at Wellington's Westpac Stadium on Saturday.

New Zealand led 12-0 after dominating the first half and extended their lead with a third try through centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall early in the second half.

England ran in quickfire tries through James Roby and Gareth Widdop to cut the gap to eight points and were denied a third by video referee Bill Harrigan before Benji Marshall finally sank England's hopes with a fourth try.

"We can't afford to be giving 12-point leads, especially at this level," admitted Huddersfield Giants stand-off Brown.

"Even though we had a good crack at it, we let them score first in the second half and that was criminal really against a world-class side.

"It was a massive mountain to climb but we showed that we had a bit of character to come back and I think, if that try had been given, it could have been a different tale.

"It was a massive turning point because they went to the other end and scored straight after.

"We had all the momentum and ascendancy. We would have scored three tries to their one in that second half and were really coming strong.

"It was a real sucker punch when they scored. We'll need to learn from that."

Brown remains adamant that his try should have been given. He was first to the ball after Sam Tomkins's kick took a wicked bounce over the tryline but Harrigan ruled the Huddersfield player had pushed New Zealand forward Greg Eastwood before touching down.

"I've seen them given hundreds of times when you are scrambling and fighting for the ball," said Brown.

"When a ball kicks, the natural thing is to change your body in the direction and you can't change direction with your hands down by your side.

"So I was disappointed with the decision. My first thought was that I've got it down so it's a try. I didn't even think about the push.

"The disappointing thing was that we compounded that by letting them score."

Brown is already contemplating a possible rematch with New Zealand in the November 13 final in Brisbane.

"I'd love to have another crack at them," he said. "If we can beat Australia and then Papua New Guinea, we'll play them in the final and hopefully give it to them in the final.

"That's what I'm looking forward to. My thoughts this week are getting my body right and hopefully getting selected for the Australia game and having a good crack at them."

Meanwhile, centre Michael Shenton's Four Nations campaign could be over after he suffered ankle ligament damage in the Wellington match.

The 24-year-old Castleford threequarter, who is joining St Helens next season, picked up the injury in the first half but stayed on and went on to set up England's second try after the break.

Shenton went for a hospital scan yesterday and was on crutches as he arrived at Wellington airport for the flight to Melbourne.

England coach Steve McNamara said it was too early to diagnose the seriousness of the injury but expects to have a clearer idea today when the team undergoes further rehabilitation.

"It doesn't look good but we will be monitoring the injury and keeping an eye on what progress Michael makes," said McNamara.

"I thought Michael had a terrific second half on Saturday, although we haven't ruled him out of the rest of the tournament, we may need to look at other options."

Tournament rules do not allow teams to send for replacements once the competition has started but England have two other specialist centres in their squad who have yet to feature on tour, Huddersfield's Leroy Cudjoe and Tony Clubb of Harlequins.

Darren Lockyer became Australia's all-time leading tryscorer as the Kangaroos began the defence of their Four Nations trophy with an eight-try 42-0 defeat of an enthusiastic Papua New Guinea in wet conditions at Sydney's Parramatta Stadium.

Centre Willie Tonga scored a try in each half while Lockyer's 59th-minute touchdown was his 34th in Australia colours, taking him past Ken Irvine at the top of the list of all-time try-scorers.

Under new coach Stanley Gene, the Kumuls were spirited and tough in the early stages, hitting hard in defence and showing plenty of intent in front of a crowd of 11,308, but they were unable to breach the champions' defensive line.

PNG, who included five players from the English Championship, produced some big hits but paid the price for poor ball control and a lack of discipline, with the Kangaroos winning the penalty count 12-2.

Australia were 26-0 up after as many minutes but the Kumuls dug deep and kept their opponents scoreless for the next half-hour until hooker Cameron Smith went over for a sixth try.

Billy Slater, Brent Tate, Cooper Cronk and Brett Morris were Australia's other try-scorers, with Smith kicking five goals.

Wakefield's Dale Ferguson scored two tries as Scotland came from behind to wrap up the 2010 European Cup with a 42-22 win over Ireland.

Ireland had raced into an 18-4 lead with tries from John Gillam, Scott Grix and Liam Finn, Ben Fisher replying for Scotland.

Two tries from Andrew and Kevin Henderson got Scotland back into it, and they went on to score 28 unanswered points.

Ferguson, Brett Carter and Mitchell Stringer then put the game out of Ireland's reach and, although Gillam scored again, Ferguson and Joe Wardle finished things off.