20 Apr 2013

Kiwis take aim at video ref

12:34 pm on 20 April 2013

The New Zealand rugby league coach Stephen Kearney and his stand-in captain have slated three contentious video referee decisions which arguably cost their side a crucial 12-point half-time lead in the Anzac test at Canberra Stadium.

The luckless Kiwis instead had to settle for a 6-6 tie at half-time, while the Kangaroos got the rub of the green all night to win 32-12.

A fourth controversial video referee decision awarded Greg Inglis a 51st-minute try that sparked a four-try Kangaroo blitz in just 11 minutes to put the game beyond the Kiwis.

Kearney says his side probably deserved to be up 18-6 at half-time with the tries that were disallowed, which would have been nice - though he wasn't offering any excuses for then leaking that many points in the second half.

Dean Whare and Frank Pritchard were both denied four-pointers within five minutes while the Kiwis were asserting their dominance courtesy of a favourable breeze.

But it was lock Alex Glenn's 23rd-minute effort, when he slammed the ball down over the line, only for it to be ruled knocked on, that was Kearney's biggest point of contention.

Captain Foran, who took over the skipper's role after Simon Mannering pulled out before kick-off, agrees, and highlights Inglis's try as the decision he felt most hard done by.

He says he thinks were a couple of cases there where it could have been called a no-try.