Morley row rumbles on

New Rugby Football League chief executive Nigel Wood has accused New Zealand chairman Andrew Chalmers of overstepping the mark by calling Morley a "maniac". The Kiwis are angry Morley was cleared to play in the first Test on Saturday following an alleged high tackle against the All Golds.

Wood said: "We believe the comments by the New Zealand camp are completely inappropriate and unwarranted."

He added: "It seems to us that they are a deliberate and predictable attempt to both influence how Great Britain players are dealt with and viewed by the match officials during the Test Series and to aggravate Adrian Morley and his fellow squad members.

"Claims that a player sets out to deliberately injure an opponent have no place whatsoever in an international sporting contest.

"We believe the New Zealanders are guilty of double standards as many people will recall the incident in 2005 in which Paul Deacon sustained a horrendous injury, and also incidents from last year's Gillette Tri-Nations match in Wellington involving the Kiwi player Steve Matai."

Chalmers said the New Zealand representative on the three-man video review panel was outvoted and labelled the decision "a disgrace", arguing in Australia the tackle would have led to a suspension of four to six weeks.

RFL assistant coach Steve McNamara said the comments had "fired up" up the Great Britain players for the opening match.

"The lads are angry at what the Kiwis have come out with and have all rallied around Mozza," said McNamara. "I think it might backfire on them as the lads are fired up more than ever for Saturday.

"I think they're hoping that these remarks might provoke some sort of reaction which could result in a player getting sent off. It's disappointing that they've resorted to these tactics. We'll just let our rugby do the talking on Saturday and leave them to the mind games."