Cameron Munster has responded after England fans and commentators were left crying foul over a controversial try that helped Australia win the rugby league Ashes series on Saturday night. The Kangaroos prevailed 14-4 in a tough and grinding contest in the second Test, which gave the Australians an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-game series.
But the win didn’t come without controversy, with many of the belief that Australia’s first try shouldn’t have stood. The score was knotted at 4-4 at half-time after both sides had to settle for two penalty goals apiece.
Munster finally broke the deadlock in the 48th minute when he sliced through and slid over close to the line. But there were question marks as to whether Munster had taken advantage of an obstruction, and some also believed there was a double-movement.
Cameron Munster appeared to get away with a blatant obstruction. Image: Sky Sports/Getty
Munster blatantly ran around the back of teammate Angus Crichton, with Crichton then stopping in the defensive line rather than running through it. Munster then took an advantage after running behind his man.
None of the England defenders were particularly impeded, but as former NRL player James Graham pointed out in commentary, it was a textbook obstruction. There’s little doubt it would have drawn a penalty in the NRL, but the English video referee allowed it to stand.
Graham said Munster probably would have submitted to a tackle rather than keep running if the same occurred in the NRL. “It’s an old-fashioned ‘shephard’,” Graham said on Sky Sports. “We see in the NRL whenever that happens, the play becomes dead.”
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Cameron Munster responds to obstruction controversy
Some also felt Munster committed a double-movement, but the video ref appeared to judge correctly that momentum took him over the line. Nevertheless, fans were fuming that the obstruction was allowed.
One person wrote on social media: “A shepherd since 1908.” Another commented: “Obstruction rule not played in International games anymore?” While a third added: “English Bunker terrified of making a call against the Aussies. Obstruction all day.”
Others labelled it a “joke” that the try was allowed, with another comment reading: “How did Munster not get penalised for obstruction?”
Cameron Munster believes it was a fair try. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
But speaking after the game, Munster defended the incident. “He’s a Pommy, isn’t he? Of course he’s going to be biased to his own team,” Munster said of Graham.
“Look, there is obviously grey areas in our game. We can talk about going behind a block, but at the end of the day, the rules have changed a little bit, where if the block doesn’t really take anyone out or stand in someone’s way, it’s play-on. I had that much time to look at George Williams and AJ Brimson. They still had a chance to tackle me, so I think that will play to my favour and being a little bit wet, I was able to slide across.
“In a normal dry game, I probably don’t even make that, so yeah, it’s one of those things, it went up as a try and it was a try. I think you can’t overturn those things where if he went no try, it wouldn’t be a try. So we can sit here and dissect that as much as you want, but I don’t think that was the reason why they lost tonight.”
England fail to capitalise on Reece Walsh sin-binning
Munster’s try was followed by another to Hudson Young not long after, as the Aussies doubled their advantage. But despite the controversy, England really only had themselves to blame.
The hosts had 53 per cent of possession and completed at a higher rate than Australia, but failed to convert their chances. They couldn’t even manage to score when Reece Walsh was in the sin-bin in the second half.
Reece Walsh was sin-binned for a shoulder charge on Dom Young. Image: Getty/Sky Sports
“There’s no excuse, we need to be better and it’s absolutely gutted me,” England coach Shaun Wane said afterwards. “I thought we were good for 70 minutes. The switch off 10 minutes after half-time hurt us immensely.
“It’s really disappointing. I thought we had a hold of the game at times, but it wasn’t enough against a really good team. We didn’t have that killer instinct at their end, but we created a lot.
“We did a lot go good things. We asked a lot of questions of them. We started the second half poorly and they punished us. A lesson learnt, but it is a tough lesson.”