McNamara disappointed with referee

In wake of England‘s 36-20 defeat to Australia this afternoon, Steve McNamara expressed his disappointment over the refereeing decisions.

In an after match interview, the England Coach told BBC Sport that whilst he would never use the referee as an excuse for the defeat, he was disappointed with some of the decisions that New Zealand referee Henry Perenara made against his side during the game.

He went on to say that he felt that the New Zealander was under pressure to speed the game up after Australian Coach Tim Sheen commented about the slowness of the game last week.

England‘s Tom Briscoe was denied a try when Perenara adjudged the winger to have made a double movement in the act of scoring. However upon further inspection, the replay showed that Briscoe’s ball carrying arm never touched the ground and had it been referred upstairs to the video referee, the try would have been awarded.

Controversy also surrounded Tony Williams‘ high tackle on Ben Westwood which Perenara put on report after he thought initial contact was with England second-rower’s shoulder. However the replay clearly showed that first contact was with Westwood’s head which could easily have resulted in a red card for the Australian.

England now require a win against New Zealand next week in Hull in order to progress to the Four Nations final.