Pundits questions crucial video referee call as England lose second Ashes Test to Australia

England have been beaten by Australia in the second rugby league Ashes Test but one major video referee call has been questioned.

In a far closer game than the first Test at Wembley, England battled but still fell short as the Kangaroos won 14-4 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. It was a win that saw them claim an unassailable 2-0 lead to win the first rugby league Ashes series in 22 years.

They didn’t have it all their own way though with the scores level at half time but second half tries from Cameron Munster and Hudson Young sealed the win, however, questions have now been asked about the first of those tries.

Commentator James Graham had pointed out that Munster ran behind Angus Crichton, something that typically leads to players volunteering themselves for a tackle of risk being penalised, however, Munster didn’t kneel down, nor was he penalised.

The decision did go to video referee Jack Smith but only to check double movement and not any infringement, something that pundit Kevin Brown and Warrington Wolves coach Sam Burgess, who both played in the 2017 rugby league world cup final against Australia, questioned.

Should Australia’s first try have been ruled out?

Assessing the game post-match on the BBC, Brown said of Munster’s movement: “I’m not sure that’s allowed, though. I think every time we see this in the club game, in NRL and Super League, they take a knee.”

Burgess called it a 50-50 call, as he said: “It’s in the history books, Browny. I understand he ran behind a line-running player, and he fell over the line, and that’s a 50-50 call. You have to get a couple of those going away in the context of a game.”

Brown went in again though, as he added: “We brought it on ourselves because for this opportunity, we spilled the ball, but when you watch it now, once he runs round the back then by the laws of the game, he has to go down because he has impinged on George Williams’ defensive form.

“He cannot get to him, so he’s put him off, and for it to go to the video ref and then just look at double movement. We didn’t look once at Angus Creighton running through, so I do believe we were unlucky, but I’ll go back to the fact that it wasn’t just one error.”

To that, Burgess agreed, even admitting that Australia had been “scratchy” but were able to punish England more so than England could punish them.

The Warrington Wolves boss said: “Australia were a bit scratchy today. They were there to be taken so we need to play more down at this end of the field than the other end and they invited them down there, and as we know, they don’t need a lot of time down there because they can make points.”

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