Wuz Engerland robbed?

It’s two days since the ground shaking collision of Ireland and England at the ancient Lansdowne Road and the complaints from the England coach Andy Robinson, and thousands of English rugby fans on internet message boards about the performance of Referee Jonathan Kaplan have still to abate. There’s an Australian joke that goes something like this. "How do you know when the poms have arrived in Australia." Answer: "The whining goes on long after the engines of the 747 have been turned off."

The cause of their complaints are two disallowed tries. One for Mark Cueto in first-half injury time and one for Josh Lewsey in the closing minutes of the match.

Television replays of either incident were inconclusive to say the least. Cueto was pinged for being ahead of outhalf Charlie Hodgson’s perfectly judged cross-field kick and there was no footage available that could say whether he was or he wasn’t.

One thing is certain though, Kaplan blew his whistle almost as soon as Hodgson kicked and it was a good two or three seconds before Cueto caught and touched down over the Irish line. The early whistle could well explain why no Irish player was near Cueto when he touched down. They’d heard the whistle and were preparing to position themselves for the next play.

Also, Cueto’s prompt arrival to the ball would suggest he could well have been flirting with being ahead of the kicker.

The only replay of Lewsey’s disallowed try that could cast any light on the matter, showed that Johnny O’Conor - the proverbial thorn in the side of the English rose all afternoon - had driven the English winger back over the line and may, along with Ronan O’Gara, had a hand underneath the ball to prevent the score.

One incident where a try could clearly be shown to have been a result of foul play was the English try by Martin Corry. Standing at the side of a ruck, O’Gara was tackled by England’s Danny Grewcock and held to the ground while Corry picked and ran home from about 25 metres unopposed.

The whining poms will tell you that as O’Gara had a hand on Lewis Moody’s back, he was, therefore, entitled to be cleaned out of the ruck. True he was. But cleaning out does not involve tackling. You can barge or shove a player to protect your ball, but tackling him and taking him out of the game is illegal.

The planes have long since left Dublin Airport and landed back in England, but, you can still hear the whining all across the Irish sea.