Jesus, you guys are getting the excuses in early. Having an Aussie ref will work in our favour. The perceived bias will if anything work the other way, as he'll be subconsciously looking to appear neutral.



I'm glad of this decision. I think we'll get the rub of the green because of it.

Not sure I agree that Bentham has been poor... on the basis of what exactly?



We have Perenara who put a player on report for a challenge that he should have been able to rule on there and then. That player was then suspended for one match. He was way out of his depth at Wembley in that second half... and it showed!



We have Cecchin who put two players on report, and I think he was in a position to have ruled on at least one of those (the Sam Tompkins incident), and then these two players received 1 and 2 match suspensions. We should not be seeing ref's miss or use the report rule to cop out of making on-field decisions at this level in a short series. The disciplinary board felt all these incidents were worthy of suspensions because of deliberate foul play, surely that indicates a situation where these ref's have not been up to highest standard?



I watch Bentham ref the Aus v Wales game and Cecchin ref the Nz v Eng game and it was clear to me who had more control, who was constantly communicating with players and giving clear instructions and was confident in his ability to control the game... it wasn't Cecchin!



If we are going to pick ref's that are not neutral, then we need to the best ref in the middle... and that hasn't Cecchin IMO!

And I must be alone but I don't even believe this neutral nonsense. An English ref isn't going to help England win and an Australian ref isn't going to help Australia win.



The problem is referees - all of them, without exception - make mistakes. There's been bad calls going in every direction throughout this Four Nations. But when an Aussie ref makes a bad call in favour of an Aussie team people scream conspiracy, and when an English ref makes a bad call in favour of an English team people scream conspiracy, and when a Kiwi ref makes a bad call in favour of a Kiwi team people scream conspiracy. The reality is that they're just bad calls, and they happen, in all levels of the game.



And when calls go in our favour nobody sees it, because we're biased. How many of you were screaming at the referee because 2 of our tries the other night, arguably 3, weren't legit - Forward pass, incorrect play the ball and a 2-on-1 strip? You'll have a whinge about every incident small or minor that favoured NZ, but refuse and still refuse to accept that we got a good number of free tries.



Cecchin will make calls that favour Australia and everyone will be whinging about them, but then you'll all conveniently forget or refuse to accept the calls he'll make that will favour us.



Refs aren't infallible

Can you please give us one example when either the NZ or the Aus ref 'favoured' us in either match please ?



Not just a silly innocuous incident example, but one when the game could go either way.

Gillette Four Nations Final England v Australia 6pm (SKY) Ref M Cecchin TJ J Child TJ S Rehm RR H Perenara VR I Smith RTJ P Holland RTJ T Roby TK R Tennant MC D Campbell [iAt Elland Road, Leeds [/i www.therfl.co.uk/referee/appointments

Gillette Four Nations Final England v Australia 6pm (SKY) Ref M Cecchin TJ J Child TJ S Rehm RR H Perenara VR I Smith RTJ P Holland RTJ T Roby TK R Tennant MC D Campbell [iAt Elland Road, Leeds [/i www.therfl.co.uk/referee/appointments

I agree with you, I don't beleive Cecchin or Bentham are biased... but as you point out above, Cecchin has been poor. Thanks for the other examples.

Well, I think a try from a forward pass, a try from an incorrect play the ball and a try from a 2-on-1 strip went in our favour. Do you disagree?



The England try from the 2-on-1 strip, while conjecture, probably sealed England the game. NZ looked to be building in the last 15 minutes to something of a comeback. Sure, they were outplayed convincingly, but at one point scored a try, and were then only 2 tries behind and looked threatening. If they scored one more, which they looked like they could have done before the 2-on-1 strip, it would have been game on.



I think if you're to be honest with yourself, a NZ fan has as much reason as we do to feel angry about some of the calls in that game. The refereeing was abysmal, but it was abysmal without prejudice.

He has mate. Last Saturday was one of the worst referee performances I've seen in a good while. But I don't see how so many England fans, and equally Kiwi fans if you go read their forums, think they were hard done by.



There was several terrible, huge calls that went against both teams. But both sets of fans only see the bad calls that help the other team. Nobody, except from my estimations about 27 people world wide, seem to have the freak ability to see bad calls that favour their own team.

Don't think they are biased but both start clucking if they've a big decision to make. Reckon Chase and Tomkins will need headguards on Saturday because they wont get protection from the ref.

There are not many times when I get embarrassed at being a follower of our game... but this is one of them. How we can’t get a neutral ref for an international is beyond me and makes the whole sport look bad in my opinion

If England play well and don't throw high shots, lay on far too long in the tackle, retreat 10 metres and stand square at each ptb....then the nationality of the referee is not important. We have to not give the ref a chance to be deemed bias against us.



He can't penalise us if we don't break the rules can he?



Anyway, my personal preference would be for both SL and the NRL to make a decision on the number of referees needed and then play it across the board...it's pretty sad that two competitions playing the same sport can't do that. Wouldn't happen in any other main stream sport.



If we all had two referees, then this final could have an Aussie and an Englishman in charge. End of.

But this guy isn't used to refereeing solo is he ? Its a 2-man job in the NRL.



Having said that I'd still prefer him to Bentham.



Perenara did his job perfecly for Sheens by ensuring an Aussie win at Wembley AND officiating so badly that he wouldn't get the final.