RUGBY LEAGUE Mac the strife

ENGLAND STAR FACING WORLD CUP BAN IF GUILT Y OF BITING

The England winger was accused by Lebanon captain Robbie Farah of sinking his teeth into his left arm during a scrappy win in Sydney yesterday.

McGillvary protested his innocence but was placed on report.

A tournament match review panel will meet tomorrow to decide on any action.

If McGillvary is found guilty, he could miss England’s final group game against France in Perth on Sunday.

He and Farah appeared to make up on the pitch several minutes after initially almost coming to blows. Farah said: “Things happen in a split second on the field and you react.

“I made a complaint on the field and I’ll leave it at that.

“I don’t think I need to say much else. There is a bit of footage there.

“It’s pretty clear for everyone to see what happened on the replay.”

McGillvary, who scored England’s second try, was not made available to the media post match and coach Wayne Bennett was unclear about the incident.

“It’s a bit hard for me t o make a comment,” he said.

“I have no more i nformation than you’ve got.

“From where I’m sitting I can’t tell you whether he bit him or not.” It provided an unwanted distraction on a frustrating night for Bennett’s out-of-sorts side.

Despite having looked in control, when three tries in eight first-half minutes put them 22-8 ahead, they still suffered some shaky moments.

Building

And but a superb individual Tom Burgess effort aside, they failed to break down Lebanon’s defence after the break. It seemed a step back from the encouraging performance in the opening day defeat by tournament favourites Australia – although centre John Bateman maintains that is not the case. Bateman said: “There were patches there where we were really good.

“We’re building gradually and I think we’ll get there.

“We were a bit patchy with the ball but we’ve got our first two points of the tournament.”

England took an early lead through the impressive Kallum Watkins before Lebanon hit back when Nick Kassis capitalised on Gareth Widdop’s error.

Tries from McGillvary, Ryan Hall and Ben Currie put Bennett’s side in command.

But despite Burgess’ 40-metre effort, they struggled with the ball after the break and Jason Webhe scored a deserved consolation. » SCOTLAND’S World Cup hopes rest on a final group game against Samoa.

Oscar Thomas scored their only try as Scotland were swept aside 74-6 by New Zealand.