Lock Paul Gallen claimed the Australians were "stitched up", while others were highly critical of the controversial penalty try ruling by video referee Steve Ganson that took the game away from the Kangaroos.

Prop Brent Kite maintained fullback Billy Slater would have cleaned up the bouncing ball even if winger Joel Monaghan had not impeded Kiwi Lance Hohaia - although he conceded the Canberra player should have been sin-binned. "Of course he would have," Kite said when asked if Slater would have retrieved the ball. "I think anyone could have seen that. Even if he wasn't there, there has to be no doubt that he's not going to bobble the ball. How many times do you see that? [Darren] Lockyer had one earlier in the first half.

"That was very disappointing. I thought it warranted a send-off but to say that Billy didn't have a very good chance of getting that ball was hard to swallow."

Asked about the controversial decisions throughout the game, which also included the awarding of a Jerome Ropati four-pointer after the ball had been knocked out of Benji Marshall's grasp by Kangaroo Anthony Laffranchi, Gallen told Channel Nine: "It was terrible, to be honest. We knew we were going to have to play bad to be beaten. We didn't play our best game but we weren't that bad. It was a bit of a stitch-up, I thought, in some decisions."

The reaction to the result was equally bleak. "It's a shame we have to lose for people to be a bit interested in the result [of the tournament]. But that's the way it went," Kite said. "I'm already trying to forget about it. Every time I think about it, it hurts. We're better than what we showed. We're not going to dwell on that. I want to put it behind us. You don't want to be making excuses. We didn't get the job done."

Back-rower Laffranchi described the loss as "heartbreaking". "We're very disappointed," he said. "There's probably no easy way to take a loss in the final. I'm lost for words at the moment."