Mate Ma’a Tonga head coach Kristian Woolf has criticized referee Matt Cecchin for not consulting a video referee before making ruling that Tongan prop forward Andrew Fifita had lost a ball forward during a line break run towards the English try line in the dying seconds of Tonga’s semi-final loss to England in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup last Saturday 25 November. 

In a post-match conference following the game, Kristian Woolf told reporters that he was puzzled at why Matt Cecchin did not consult a video referee before making the ruling.

Kristian Woolf stated, "I just can't believe we don't have a look at that (consult the video referee), the game is on the line, it's the last play of the game.”

"What I don't understand with that one, when you look at some of the other tries, the first try that England scored and Andrew Fifita looks like he gets his arm underneath and we look at that as many times as we possibly can."

Concerning his team’s performance, Woolf said his team had failed to take the opportunities they created during the game.

"We had three or four opportunities well before that last 10 or 15 minutes and for whatever reason tonight, opportunities we have taken in past games, we just weren't able to take," Woolf said.

"We just didn't quite get there tonight with a couple of opportunities we created."

“I thought we certainly did enough to win that game at different times, our execution was just a little bit off when it counted."

“I thought for very, very long periods we were on top of that game. We were a little bit ill-disciplined when we needed to be better, that gave England field position at times.