Kiwis struggled with French ref 

Source: PhotosportKiwi forward Adam Blair is dejected

"Stop making excuses bro," Adam Blair told Frank Pritchard. "The better team won."

The Kiwis missed out on the final of the Four Nations rugby league tournament Sunday morning (NZ time) after going down to England 12-20.

Pritchard was in the middle of discussing New Zealand's difficulties with French referee Thierry Alibert in an interview in the beaten dressingroom at Galpharm Stadium.

But he had clearly drifted too far from the party line and was pulled back by his fellow forward.

Perhaps reminded of Australia coach Ricky Stuart abusing referee Ashley Klein the morning after the World Cup final last year, the Kiwis decided as soon as the fulltime whistle was blown that they would not allow themselves to be portrayed as bad sports.

Supporters of both New Zealand and England questioned the decisions and interpretations of the Super League referee of French origin.

"You wouldn't get that back in the NRL," said second rower Pritchard. "The ruck speed was very slow. There were too many hands in the play-the-ball."

Halfback Nathan Fien said: "The French ref had a few different interpretations. The 20-metre taps were just one of those. They were very quick."

Alibert, who Australia initially refused to play under, called a forward pass from Benji Marshall that went a metre backwards onto the ground at a crucial stage of the game.

He missed Bryson Goodwin tackling Peter Fox in the air, Marshall swinging an arm at Sam Tomkins and failed to report Fuifui Moimoi for a high tackle on Ben Westwood.

Issac Luke managed to con one, even two penalties out of him. Former Great Britain stalwart Mike Stephenson said in commentary Alibert "wasn't up to it".

"It was pretty hard - I just couldn't seem to get the interpretation right, what he was saying," Marshall said.

"I was talking to him on the field about it going both ways.

"To tell you the truth, I couldn't really get a couple of words in."

But still, the beaten World Cup holders were determined not to go down in league history as whingers. They would fight another day, dignity intact.

"Look, I'm not going to make any excuses and blame the referee," Marshall said.

"The simple matter is they were good, we were bad. That's what happens when you're bad - you lose."