Tonga ready to question officials over disallowed try

TONGA are to question World Cup officials about Andrew Fifita’s disallowed try in the dying moments of their dramatic 20-18 semi-final defeat by England.

The Tongans had fought back from 20-0 down with three converted tries in the last seven minutes to set up a nail-biting finish and thought they had snatched a sensational victory when Fifita went on a charge for the line with just seconds left on the clock.

The ball came free in England second rower Elliott Whitehead’s tackle and, although Fifita claimed a try after regathering the ball, referee Matt Cecchin ruled a knock-on and promptly blew the final whistle.

England coach Wayne Bennett insisted it was not a try and claimed the referee ought to have given England a penalty moments earlier for a ball strip on winger Jermaine McGillvary.

“The ref allowed play on and exactly the same thing happened to Fifita,” Bennett said. “He got the ball stripped off him one on one. In both cases he should have given a penalty but he did neither. It comes under the category of a loose carry.”

Tonga coach Kristian Woolf questioned the decision not to refer the call to video referee Ben Thaler and said he would be bringing up the incident with tournament officials.

“I don’t know if it’s a try or not because I haven’t seen it again but I would have thought under those circumstances, when the game is on the line, you have a look at it, especially when we looked at other tries 10 or 12 times,” Woolf said. England’s Kallum Watkins takes on the Tonga defence during the semi-final victory