Australia coach Tim Sheens wants England's Liam Farrell charged for a chicken wing tackle on Greg Inglis – and Cameron Smith says he has no doubt he was tripped by rival captain Sean O'Loughlin. Asked if he thought action should be taken against Farrell, Sheens said "yes": Smith added; "You know when you've been tripped. I don't know if it was a reflex action." Three players were booked in the opening 17 minutes – Australia's Greg Bird was the other. Sheens expressed his disgust at that decision. Rival coach Steve McNamara did not expect the Wigan pair to be charged – "not after there was no action last week." Further controversy surrounded Ryan Hall's late disallowed try that would have levelled the score with a conversion to come. The English winger was adamant he grounded the ball. "I knew I touched the ball. I didn't make a song and dance about it because I didn't see myself touch the ball. Under Super League rules that's a try. I don't want to dwell on it because it'll drive me crazy," Hall said.
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2. Show us the money
Josh McGuire has called on the NRL to pay equally all of its players involved in international series. The Brisbane star, who rejoined the Samoans after missing Australia selection, left no doubt that money now plays a big part in international sport. "It's hard – a lot of people have family and kids and they've got to feed them," McGuire said. "The difference is they [the Kangaroos] get $30,000 [a game] and we get [hardly] anything. Our boys are playing because they love the game and they love representing their country. The boys go across to those bigger countries because they get paid well. If the pay was the same across the board, you'd probably see a lot of fellas stay for those developing countries and you'd get an even comp."
3. Kangaroo tours on
The irony of the Four Nations' success so far is the Rugby League International Federation pretty much decided during its recent meeting in Brisbane that the concept was getting tired. Instead, Kangaroos tours of the northern hemisphere and England or Great Britain tours of Australasia will likely return after the 2017 World Cup, despite Great Britain being told by Australia to stay home next year. Rugby league may also introduce confederations cups in four regions and there is a hunger to bring back the World Nines in some form. France moved a step closer to competing in the 2016 Four Nations by beating Scotland 38-22 in Netherdale.
4. Dog trouble
There was a public-address announcement at Toll Stadium on Saturday, a few minutes into the New Zealand-Samoa epic. "There is a dog locked in a car. The RSPCA has been called and you will be told off about it." In scenes rarely witnessed outside of Papua New Guinea, two men watched the game from a tree, 20 metres above ground level. Across the Tasman on Friday, Cameron Smith kicked off his career as a life model when he found a group of elderly amateur artists were sketching his Federation Square television interview with the BBC.
5. NZRL lifeline?
The New Zealand Rugby League has no main domestic competition from which to earn money and relies pretty much entirely on Test matches and government funding. The problem has always been that Australia don't want to play them very often and no one else in the neighbourhood is in the same class. We may have seen the birth of something special on Saturday – three games of that intensity at Origin time would bring fans flocking and create a whole new revenue stream for the NZRL. The Sir Peter Leitch Trophy was presented for the first time in Whangarei – basically it is there for Pacific nations to take off the Kiwis in New Zealand. It won't stay in Auckland as long as the America's Cup stayed in New York, we're willing to wager.
6. Forced attack
Aside from the titans of international football going within an ace of being toppled at the weekend, they were also forced to play more entertaining football by their upstart opposition. New Zealand captain Simon Mannering said his team was "forced it" – as in passes – in response to the Samoan onslaught. That may have been an inconvenience to you Simon, but we loved it.
Twitter @therealsteavis
