First and foremost, the referee was a loving disgrace. The amount of lying on and messing about at the PTB by NZ that he continually allowed, slowing us down all the time, was scandalous.
He ruined the game as a spectacle and could have caused some more serious fights than the scuffles that did ensue because he just allowed NZ to basically cheat all game that frustrated our lads.
He poop himself when the big decisions came round - Marshall high tackled Hall to stop a try, which is at least a Sin Bin, and the ref just brushed over it and gave just a penalty.
And when Hastings made that great break, Philbin was pulled back and he was going to be the support runner. The ref did NOTHING!
Onto the game: GB played with no intensity and no invention at all. I can’t help but feel that Bennett’s coaching is outdated. And by love it’s BORING! One-out running with absolutely no creativity at all. It’s supposed to be the entertainment business but it was about as entertaining as watching grass grow.
Josh Hodgson is a boring RL player. Steady, consistent, yes. But boring. All he does is pass from dummy half or take three steps from dummy half and then pass which just reduces the space for the ball receiver. He does absolutely nothing to commit any defenders to him to create space for the player he passes to and he hasn’t got a dummy half run in him. He causes absolutely ZERO panic in the opposition defence. I felt the same watching him in that NRL GF where the only true X Factor Canberra had was Whiteon. At the very top level (GFs/test matches) you need an X Factor, you have to have something special at Hooker but Hodgson just simply doesn’t have it.
McGilvary has to do better. He had an eye catching World Cup but when it really mattered in the World Cup Final he should have passed to Widdop for a try but didn’t, and froze when that ball went through and he missed the ball when trying to kick it. Yesterday, he should have passed to Hardaker on the break and he seriously had to score that try, he didn’t protect the ball at all.
It looks like Hall is now injured and McGilvary isn’t good enough yet Bennett hasn’t taken any other wingers on the tour (which is loving ridiculous). So now we’re going to go into the final games with players playing out of position.
All-in-all a very frustrating tour so far. I’m really disappointed!
And I hope that we do not see that disgrace of a referee again!
