I assume Perenara will be refereeing Australia in the semi final too.

No doubt if England get through, it will be either Hayne or Klein.

I think the only credibility harmed really is that of the USA team. Ireland put in a better showing against the Aussies and like the USA they are mainly part timers. I was disappointed in the USA team's efforts to be honest. But hey-ho, not ever match can be a great one.

If the USA team had included more real Americans from the domestic competition, players like Apple Pope, Taylor Alley, Bart Longchamp and Brendon Beedle, then the USA would have posted a few tries and stopped a few, giving the game a more competitive edge.



However it is irrelevant in the general scheme of things, because the USA team's games were not telecast in the USA, and so 300 million Americans have had no idea that the USA rugby league team was even playing in the RLWC. Congratulations to IMG for a royal screw up of its opportunities and responsibilities as media rights holder, and congratulations to Nigel Wood for allowing IMG to get the rights and not get the plum contracts for our game

Hey up! Mystic Meg is back!

The group games have been excellent but the fact is we were always going to get 3 one sided QFs and 1 one sided semi regardless of who got through the groups England Australia and New Zealand are just to far ahead

Exactly. And a huge well done to whoever came up with the structure for the group stages as it created many close games and great publicity when we could have seen more blow out scores with a different format

Should let rugby union players be used to boost standards imo

You know what they say about opinions.

So you are saying the score would have been something like 44-16?

The US domestic players lost to Canada this summer and beat them narrowly another time - I think that puts your argument swiftly to bed.

It wasn't a bad game.

USA had periods where they competed with the best in the world, which is all they could hope for.

The format has a lot of good points, but there was always going to be a mismatch for this game, which technically pits the number 1 side against the number 8 side, the widest spread allowed in the entire competition due to the format, but i'd say USA were very lucky to make 8th spot.

The second hallf shows why New Zealand will win the show - Tim Sheens.

He loses a fullback, so brings a specialist half on and puts him at dummy half, pushing the world's best hooker into the back row. Net result Australia totally lose their composure and play a very second rate second half.

I like Cherry-Evans but he's no hooker, and Smith is certainly not a back rower.